Late Spring!

15 years ago

Well it's May 3 and all of my trees are just about exactly where they were two weeks ago- apple leaves just trying to unfold, pear blossoms just trying to open, and apricot and plum all but dormant. I've been wondering if they're going to wake up at all, but now I think I see signs of perking up. I do hope.

The upside of this late start is that at least the bloom won't be finished before the bees are active. I did find a window in which to dormant spray- nothing else is needed for a while ... I hope. It has been cold and windy with occasional snow flurries. Just what you'd expect in early April. The only thing that's timed as it should be is the astronomical factors: the stars and planets don't seem to be too caught up in our climate/weather shenanigans.

Weatherwise it has been a weird, rough year. From what I've read here I'm not the only one. Wish I knew what to expect down the road.

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Comments (8)

myk1
15 years ago
Similar here. We did get a couple days of warmth and sun which got the pollinators out so I'm starting to see petal fall on some.
Now I'm wondering if we'll get the frost they're calling for tonight, and hoping that CAR and PC are equally delayed.
glenn_russell
15 years ago
Hi Mark-
Here in RI, we're about 2 weeks behind last year, but last year was a very early spring for us. According to my stages records (which I keep for all my apple trees), we're right about where were were in 2009.
-Glenn
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franktank232
15 years ago
Its been in the 40Fs! the first 3 days of May. The NWS here mentioned yesterday that "green up" is 3 weeks behind normal here in southwest WI. The average here today is right around 70F. Yesterday we hit 43F for a high temp...the normal low is 44F.

This is bananas. All my apricots are flowering and everything else is getting very near. I think late this weekend, early next week we get an explosion.

The whole pattern is about to change. This crap is about done from what I've been seeing. It looks like we get into a more southwest flow with 70Fs and possibly 80F by early next week.
ottawan_z5a
15 years ago
I should not feel much frustrated with no-spring-yet situation here knowing now that we are not the only ones. We have been having rain and drizzle OFF and ON and ON and ON. Sun peeks through once in a while. The weekly weather forecast shows one or two sunny days near the end of the weekly forecast but as those days approach, the forecaste is changed to rain on those days...
Still hoping the sun will shine soon.
marknmt
Original Author
15 years ago
What you guys said. Glenn's situation looks to be a reversion to the mean (probably tempered by Atlantic influence, I imagine) but the Midwest and Rocky Mountain Front (eastern part of the Rockies) are just plain weird and weirder. Getting pretty well beaten up.

Interesting to me is the variation in different varieties and cultivars. Some of the area apricots are in full bloom, others virtually dormant. Haven't seen any plums pushing very hard, but a few are at least budding out. Pomes seem reticent (my one pear is the only one I've seen trying to bloom) and even forsythia and lilac seem to have just stopped dead. (We dropped into the high teens just a week ago. Did I say "weird"?) I think the more restrained fruit trees may be the smarter.

Garden centers are confused, I'm confused, and I think Mother Nature is confused.

Arrrgh! I sure hope this all works out OK.

:-)M
Beeone
15 years ago
Certainly strange here. Sure feels like early April rather than May. Early apricots are starting to open, everything else is still trying to swell buds. Pear buds with blooms are starting to push out, though.

I like to think that a late spring means that there is less chance of the bloom freezing since the weather will even out eventually, so a cold spring will be a short spring, then summer arrives!

In years past, I would have been trying to graft right about now with the apples pushing leaves. Guess that will come later this time.
alan haigh
15 years ago
Last year I though our early spring was great until a hard frost hit in mid-May and burned a lot of my already well formed peaches and nectarines (plums and apples were fine). Lots of apple growers further north and in cold spots lost their crops entirely.

Then came the green stinkbugs that seem to thrive in long, warm and dry seasons.

It is too bad that there's no such thing as normal weather. What people call normal is really the average you come up with when combining the extremes that really constitute what normal weather is. It's usually either too hot, too cold, too wet, too dry or too something. Growers are gamblers and mother nature owns the casino.
fabaceae_native
15 years ago
Weird winter and spring here in the Southwest too...

We've had a record dry spell since January, along with a generally mild winter, but punctuated by the coldest temps on record the first week of February.

Green up was maybe a week early if that, but we've continued to have late frosts until last night, which I'm hoping will be the last.

High elevation and far northern fruit trees are the only ones that have yet to finish flowering in NM, where fruit tree blossom season is generally March in Albuquerque, and April in Santa Fe. It's very interesting to read about where things are in other parts of the country...