Jujubes Have Frost Power!
Southwest Yard & Garden By Shengrui Yao, Marisa Thompson, and Bethany Abrahamson QUESTION: I want to grow my own fruit, but the area where I live tends to experience late spring freezes. What can I grow that will survive the cold weather and still produce fruit? -- frequently asked question from gardeners statewide ANSWER: Late spring frosts are a major limitation to fruit production in much of New Mexico and surrounding areas. Warm springs, especially the one we had this year, exacerbate this issue by speeding up orchard bud break and flower development in late winter and early spring, only for those buds to be taken out by the spring frosts. We took a close look at stone fruit and pome fruit trees and jujubes from Alcalde to Los Lunas to see which trees were able to recover from this year's late spring cold front. In mid-April of 2026, minimum temperatures at Alcalde (north of Española ) dropped to around 25°F (New Mexico Weather,...