Prep Your Perennials

(For our regular readers, I’m sorry you’ve heard so little from me of late. Work got extra tricky while we were dealing with the pandemic disruptions, and I just didn’t have the mental energy. I hope you’ve all been getting along well!)

We’ve had an odd weather year. Again. On one hand, apple blossoms are really pretty with a blanket of snow! On the other hand … that’s a great way to lose a whole crop; and if you’re not lucky, an orchard. What’s a prepper to do to protect those valuable perennial food sources when the weather turns sour?

Perennials are beautiful preps

Canned food and other stores are vital preps, and great for the short term. Not every problem goes away quickly though. Long-term economic disruptions (personal or national) could make fresh foods hard to come by for more than a few weeks. And then there’s morale. Canned food will get you by, but fresh-picked asparagus or berries still warm from the sun are a prize at any time.

Having fresh and good food sources that will just show up, without you having to do much about it, is just a beautiful thing. 

Nothing reduces risk of food shortage more than watching the food grow right at hand…

It’s a bonus that if fresh foods do become hard to get, the perennial foods also gain value as tradables.

… but there is a perennial problem

The problem is most perennial food plants take a year or more before they really start bearing. That means if the plants you’ve got die, you’re going to be missing that food source for awhile. If your blossoms or young fruits fail, that’s also a problem but only for a year. 

Plan to save the perennials

We can’t command the weather, or demand pests not breed. So what is to be done?

First, expect it. There will be bad weather years. (and some of these result in the pest outbreaks) The best time to prepare for them is when you’re choosing your varieties.

If you’re trying to grow food, you should already know what climate zone you’re in, and using that to guide your choices. If not, click here to get started. But don’t stop there!

Consider the worst weather hazards in your area. Plan for your biggest plant problem to be worse than usual. Live in a dry area? Pick varieties that are more drought-hardy than you Usually need. Here in northeast Missouri, our most likely killer is late spring cold snaps; so I choose varieties that can stand one climate zone colder than we really are.

On the cold-hardy variety, the frostbitten petals dropped to reveal swelling baby apples!

So far it’s working well. The snow on my apple blossoms, and some browned and frozen petals the next day, had me worried … but a week later there were bouncing baby apples swelling under most of the blossoms.

Accept you won’t always guess right

Weather is nothing if not inventive. Sure as you pretend you’ve got it all figured out, a new curve ball will blow in. 

Hedging your bets can protect you from your inability to see the future. As I mentioned, I plan first and foremost against late spring cold snaps. But I also plant to be wrong sometimes. If I have room for multiple varieties, I make sure to pick ones with different strengths. My first apples I picked to stand the cold, but a later tree got picked for its pest resistance. 

Many years of live perennials is better than two years of great yields

You really can’t have it all. The best yielding, most delicious varieties of perennials are never also the most cold hardy, pest resistant, drought resistant varieties. Here’s the thing, though: One live fruit tree, berry vine, or patch of asparagus will make a lot of food, even if it isn’t the Most food any variety would yield. A frost-killed tree is just firewood. As a prepper, I suggest at least part of your choices should favor the long haul.