Fruit trees in the Northeast budding too early

What to do with 30,000 Apple Trees that bud in the first week of April?

This is the issue facing many growers in the Northeast after an unprecedented hot streak hit the area in early April, reports The Associated Press.

An excerpt from the story:

“We’re just praying that we don’t get some really, really cold weather over the next few weeks,” said Frank Whittemore, 85, co-owner of Brookdale Fruit Farm in Hollis, N.H. “It would be a disaster for us.”

While most residents of the Northeast were enjoying the recent spate of warm weather, apple growers fretted about an unprecedented early bloom that could leave the nascent fruit vulnerable to a dangerous cold snap. And farmers around the country fear that other fruits, including cherries, blueberries and plums, could also fall victim to frost.

Orchard managers and fruit experts said a balmy early spring — the mercury climbed to a record-shattering 92 degrees in parts of New England on April 7 — combined with an early snow melt and heavy rains in March has trees blossoming two to three weeks ahead of schedule on average. That leaves plenty of time on the calendar for the region’s notoriously unpredictable weather to strike back with a killer freeze.

“There will be a couple of weeks where the growers, I think, will be pretty nervous,” said Russell Powell, executive director of the New England Apple Growers Association, which represents hundreds of commercial orchards in the region.

The danger with the accelerated growing pattern, Powell explained, was that once the tiny buds push out, they can easily be killed off by a hard and sudden frost.

How about the schedule here on the West Coast and in Portland? Are we on schedule here?

Speaking of fruit trees, check out the Friends of Trees selection, including several species of apple and pear.

–Toshio Suzuki