We've heard about some frozen cuttings being delivered due to frigid weather in some regions this week, so it's a good idea to share these best practices from the Ball Technical Services team:
Unpack boxes ASAP. Get the bags of cuttings out as soon as humanly possible. You don't want them sitting in boxes.
Sort them based on cold sensitivity. Segregate the cold-tolerant and cold-sensitive crops. For the cold-tolerant varieties, move them through the process like normal. For the cold-sensitive ones, read the next step.
Move cold-sensitive cuttings to a warmer area to start acclimating them. DO NOT, however, move them to a hot greenhouse. Ideally, an environment like a cooler set to 35-40F or even a garage at that temp will help slowly warm up your chilled cuttings.
Once you have them unboxed, sorted and the most sensitive ones gradually warming up, start evaluating them. After about 24 to 48 hours, you should have a good sense of cutting health. Don't stick dead or damaged cuttings—you'll be wasting time and money.
Also, check out this Chilling Injury article from MSU via OSU: https://lnkd.in/gDeD9Etu
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