How Will Produce be Affected by the Warm Winter?
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH- April 6, 2015 (Gephardt Daily) – It has been a strange winter in Utah, hasn’t it? And now spring. So what effect might that have on the fruits, vegetables and flowers we grow in our backyards, not to mention commercially? Utah had record high temperatures this winter and Katie Wagner, from the Extension: Horticulture Faculty at Utah State University says it’s having an effect on the way fruit grows. “This year has been a bit unusual that way and a bit special in that we’ve had this delayed stretch of warm weather. Some of the fruit trees that tend to develop buds will bud a little earlier in the season, so we’re talking almonds, apricots, plums, if their buds mature and then we have a real cold stretch of weather that can cause frost injury to the buds and of course we need the flower buds to produce the fruit that we love so much in the summer time.”
Fruits closer to the ground can also be affected. “Strawberries are one of the small fruits that we may see a little bit more damage on this year, they do tend to push up blooms a little earlier in the season.”
To read more, including the economic impact of the warm winter, click on the video.
