We have had a very warm winter so far here in Middle Tennessee. I live on the Cumberland Plateau in zone 6b. I was out walking around the yard checking on things tonight because of the warm weather and it is nice to be out. I was looking at some of my trees with a light and noticed several things were starting to bud out🤦‍♂️ This seems way to early for me and I am afraid that many of my trees will be stunted and there will be no fruit this year because of this. What is everyone’s experiences with this? I mean it isn’t even the second week of the year and it was 60 or more here today.
Here is a couple pics of a Pink Lemonade Blueberry
I’m not sure about being stunted,but all those fruit buds seen now are the ones that will have a chance to bloom.
At their stage now,they can probably handle temps in the twenties or lower.So,if things cool down,so that growth slows,but not super cold,it should work out.bb
You’re right to be worried. My pluots buds are swelling, and I have your same fears, specially that starting tomorrow and until next Thursday it’s going to be too warm.
My lilacs are great at swelling and un-swelling their buds all spring long. I haven’t looked at them yet this winter, but after watching them years and years and their buds I know that plants can pull back the sap when temperatures dip back into freezing temperatures. I just don’t know what the point of no return is with regard to buds re-entering dormancy.
I have a potted bonfire peach whose buds look similar to your blueberries.
And to think we are expecting more rain, not snow this weekend…
In a week the night time temps will be in the 20s. For this week the temps are going to be much warmer though. I hope that the swelling of the buds goes back down as commented about. That would make me feel so much better. The coming week is what has me worried about things budding out and trying to leaf this time of year. I pruned early this year because last year warmed up in February and stayed warm(not a great chance to prune when they were dormant). We did have a few cold spells but nothing that hurt anything thankfully. I had several peaches that I thought for sure would be frostbite last year that bore fairly well. I am just hoping that the silly weather for now doesn’t affect everything. Thanks for the replies so far.
An early Spring wouldn’t bother me as much if I knew that there wouldn’t be any hard freezes ahead. It is the thought of everything budding out and then a hard freeze killing everything. I just hope that the cold weather comes back in time to halt the process.
those just look like normal dormant buds to me.
I’m just north of you across the KY line…same weather and temps…not to worry, they’ll be just fine,
I am glad to see several of you close enough to me to have a similar growing climate (but it is bad that all of us are having similar weather). Hopefully I can use some of you guys opinions in picking different varieties of fruit to plant. Thanks for all the replies.
there are Growing Degree Day calculators and phenology lists at various sites; OSU has a good one, but limited to Ohio, Purdue, I think, also has one…there may be others, if you do a bit of searching
GDD and phenology info csn help you determine when various plants will break dormancy, pests emerge, etc.
