Wonder what this year has in store for us? Im continuing a tradition with weather observations as we have done many times before. This was 2 days ago Feb 14
Like most of the country, it’s been a warm winter here. It’s stayed above 10ºF all winter, with an average of 28ºF. It plunged down to -7ºF the previous night. 
Nature has way of crushing the spirit just when you think you are home free.
at least most of the real bad cold is behind us. if the rest of feb -mar. is like dec -jan. we should be in good shape.
Seems unseasonably warm all over this year. How is your weather? We have lots of people i have not heard from this year so i hope them & their orchards are doing well. This weather can cause frustrating losses years in a row for some. Kansas weather cycles are capable of causing multi year losses. Sometimes we diversify crops and try to get through things. The droughts at my location in recent years were devastating! I used that time to improve the ponds. Now we have lots of water.
It’s been warm here too. I still have surviving herbs outside in raised bed boxes. I’m a little concerned about what the bug population will be like this year.
Thats a really good point about the bugs.
we are having warmth this winter that i haven’t seen here in 12 yrs. its been the exact opposite before this year. more cold and snow. this year is looking like its going to be the 4th. snowiest on record and we still have 2 months of winter! the 3 previous record snowfalls have been broken in the last 12 yrs. another 10in coming weds. no wonder my plants branches can’t catch a break!
It has been weird in MA as well. Yesterday, we had 60degrees outside, and my boys were Scrambling, looking for their shorts. Today, 52’s…then, rain on Thursday and then it will drop to 30’s in the next few days…I’d be confused if I was a plant/flower. So crazy!
Apples, pears and pluots are still quiet, but some of my peaches are showing some swelling buds. We are expecting some nights in the 20s later this week. They should be okay, but a bit worried at what I saw.
The last week here has been very warm. Yesterday we had temperatures of 20 °C in the sun. On the south side of the house the pears have started to open their buds. Even the freestanding pear trees have swollen buds. The chestnut apple tree shows already green at the tips…It’s insane. For tonight we have a temperature drop and snow. I hope we get much snow to stop this early spring. If we get winter now the damage shouldn’t be so big…Most apple trees are still dormant.
January was really warm but then February has been closer to normal. My pluot has swollen buds, pawpaws too. Snowdrops and skunk cabbage have been blooming for a week or more, saw the first buds on daffodils and forsythia, frogs were out on the roads in the rain tonight.
Last Friday it was colder here than at any time during the winter, and Wedensday it snowed for maybe the second time.
Meanwhile, my pluot and apricot are blooming. I lost a huge fraction of the pluot blossoms even after trying to protect them with a tarp, and I wonder if I shouldn’t have left the apricot alone. I didn’t see any of the wilting frost damage on them, and tarping it destroyed a fair number of blooms since they were concentrated up high. Now we have a 3rd freeze on Thurs/Fri/Sat.
Daffodils are actively blooming here.
We have 3 days ahead around 40 with nights in the mid-20’s followed by a warm up into daytime temps in the high 50’s. Nothing in bloom yet, but apricot, peach, nectarine and pear are all swelling up and showing color with peach easily in the lead. It’s always apricots that bloom insanely early here and get frozen, but for a change they are holding better than peach this year. I cut branches of each to force a bloom inside in jars of water just to see how well the buds made it through the winter and all look good, if they just slow down this may be a good year.
Western Oregon here…we are way ahead of schedule. I was cutting pear scions at the NCGR one week ago (Feb 18) and it was strange to see how many trees were past utilizing because they were starting to bloom. I think all the trees showed signs of breaking dormancy but many were actively pushing buds. My own trees are a little behind the govn orchard; they are mid-valley, I’m at the base of the foot hills. Theoretically, it could snow next week but I really don’t think it is going to. Maybe it will all work out. Last year it wasn’t cold that hampered the early pollination, it was rain.
I’ll add we have daffodils up all over.
@Seedy thank you again for all you and your coworkers do! Did not realize Corvallis was that far along.
We had our weekly Wednesday cold front and dusting of snow here today. It is keeping the trees in check a bit but the warm weekends are really going to get the tree sap flowing soon.
I think I’m in my usual position. It was 20F last night after hitting the 70s every week this winter save one. Things are just starting to bloom.So it’s just the freezes first bite at the peach. We usually get taken out one bite at a time. We’ll be very lucky if that’s not the case again this yr.
Same here (Central Maryland). A bit of bud swell on the peaches (stage 1 or 2 on the charts).
They made it through 12F last week (I cut a few branches and stuck them in a vase inside the house, and about 95% of the buds are opening). At this stage they’re probably OK unless we get down into the teens, however, every few days, we have a couple more 55-60+ days, so they advance a little more…and considering we have had single digits in March before, I’m concerned.
That said, the pattern this year, as well as the long-range, doesn’t suggest anything THAT cold coming down the pike.
In 2017, we got close to 80°F in late February, pushing peaches into near-full bloom on 2/28. Then several nights in the teens in the first two weeks of March. I didn’t have any fruiting-age trees at that time, but surprisingly, some people around me managed at least SOME fruit, so I’m cautiously optimistic.
