Warm weather causes fruit plants to bud early

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - It may be nice to see a little green outside this time of year but this unusually warm weather is causing many plants to bud before they should.

The buds on area apple trees are starting to open up and the garlic is sprouting from the ground months early.

Mary Roduner, with Kansas City’s Community Garden said many plants are confused by this warm weather.

“Unfortunately, if these get going too soon, a frost could kill the flowers and then we will not have fruit next year,” said Mary Roduner.

Roduner said the warm weather could wreak havoc on your peaches, pears and cherries.

The problem? A lot of plants have not gone into hibernation properly so sap is still running inside the plant.

Roduner said many plants only bloom once a year and if they do so prematurely, they will not produce fruit when it is time.

“That happened the Spring of 2007. If you remember Easter Sunday morning we went to 19 degrees and we already had fruit on the trees and all the fruit from here to Georgia down to Arkansas, everything froze,” said Roduner.

Roduner said there is nothing you can do about it but the good news, is the warm weather won’t damage your plants if you take care of them.

“What we are going to have to do next year is just treat our plants a little bit better. We are going to baby them a bit more, make certain they are well watered, make certain they get fertilized,” said Roduner.

Roduner said putting mulch around your tree before a freeze can help but at this rate, some of your plants will not bear fruit like you are used to.