I braved the constant rain to day to inspect my plums for buds and found them two mature for comfort. I also found this sign of an early spring.
My Shitake mushroom logs are already starting to fruit again. I picked 4 good size caps.
What are your early spring signs?
22 Degrees tomorrow night so my Spice Zee and Arctic Star will be a bust this year. I did all my dormant pruning in February last year, couple of the trees didn’t give me a chance this year.
Hey Adam, I’m way south of you down I55 just east of McComb, and my 4 Spice zee’s are no where as advanced as yours. Some swelling and a few at calyx red. Don’t count spice zee out just yet, I see a lot of unopened bud that will probably survive.
It appears often in certain areas plants bloom too early. I’m 5b/6a and my spicy is not even swelling yet. Which is good, it will be almost May before it blooms.
Some of the unopened buds may be OK.
I picked a bunch of shiitake at the beginning of January, it has been surprising that everything else has been so late!
My Bryon Gold plum started blooming a few days ago. Other plums will start blooming in the next week or so. Lows will be in the teens Thursday and Friday night.
This happens every year here. Plums start blooming around mid-February. Peaches a little later. We still have at least two more months of freezing temps. Winter temps here are a constant roller coaster. Going from highs in the 60s and 70s to lows in the teens or lower. Plums are a bust almost every year, and peaches aren’t much better. I wont plant anymore trees of either.
we may not be able to grow what you folks grow in the warmer zones but at least we don’t have those issues in the winter. even a warmer winter here is still cold enough to keep things dormant until mid late may . I’ve never seen a plant lose its flowers due too a warm up and freeze here. our ground frost and snow cover keeps things sufficiently dormant until the temps are warm enough to let them grow.
It’s the same here. It’s not an issue here. It’s more like Mid April here, but the same thing. Last year it was later. First bloom was May 1st.
Ditto, never.
Today in plum town
Honey Berries are also leafing out.
I have a Beauty plum and it is in the same stage as the one shown in your photo. It’s so ready to bloom, but now is only Feb. In the past few years, it blooms in mid Mar. It’s such a warm winter this year.
Everything still dormant here. Considered the oil spray, decided not yet
My first apricot flowers. Not just this year…first ever. Can’t wait to taste home grown apricots.
I can see green tips on honeyberry buds, and we have daffodils two inches out of the ground in SE MN.
@lordkiwi My favorite time of year is when those buds are about to burst! So exciting
