EVANSVILLE, Ind. (AP) - A hard freeze this week could mean problems for gardeners and farmers who are already seeing new leaves and blossoms.
The National Weather Service issued a four-day freeze warning Monday, predicting low temperatures Monday night through Thursday morning and hard freezes Tuesday and Wednesday night. Those temperatures would mean heavy damage for sensitive plants and buds.
A killing freeze is not uncommon this time of year, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Chris Noles. It’s the warm weather the rest of the winter that could cause problems this week, since some fruit trees have started blossoming already.
Evansville saw above-average temperatures 22 out of 28 days in February and seven out of the first eight days in March. According to the National Weather Service, Evansville only logged 1.4 inches of snow so far this winter, far below the annual average of 12.1 inches.
“The fact that everything is coming out this early is not normal, and it’s suffering because of it,” Noles said. “We just are suffering from the fact that it was so warm so often.”
New leaves and buds are especially susceptible to cold damage, according to the Purdue 4-H Extension.
“Most of our trees are in bloom or very near bloom,” Amanda Mosiman, Purdue Extension-Warrick County educator, said in a 4-H Extension news release Thursday. “I have peach and plum in bloom. Forsythia and ornamental pears are in full show. Redbuds are coming on.”
The cold snap might decrease this year’s potential fruit crop, according to Purdue Professor of Horticulture Bruce Bordelon. However, it likely will not be fatal even for plants that are developing early.
“The colder weather could mean less of a show for spring-blooming ornamentals and could nip back new leafy growth, but generally the plants should be able to outgrow the damage,” Bordelon said in the Extension news release.
Gardeners should check their trees and plants for damage under the outer layer, since dead cells might not be visible on the outside, according to the Purdue 4-H Extension. Growers should also delay pruning dead branches so the trees or shrubs don’t start new buds.
A freeze that lasts multiple days could mean heavier and wide-ranging damage compared to a single-day freeze, Noles said, because the odds of crops being damaged by the freeze increase the longer it lasts.
“When you get down into the lower 20s, even without frost, that’s pretty damaging,” he said. “These buds that are coming out could be damaged.”
The freeze warning, which is in effect until 10 a.m. Thursday, might not be the Tri-State’s last this spring.
“We will have a risk for freezing temperatures through about the first or second week of April,” Noles said. “After that we’re usually done.”
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Source: Evansville Courier & Press, https://bit.ly/2nokvdO
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Information from: Evansville Courier & Press, https://www.courierpress.com
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