With cold weather returning to Southwest Michigan this week after a period of warmer weather, how are the fruit crops doing?
MSU Extension grape specialist Mike Reinke tells us he’s had growers ask him to check out their fields, and it looks to him like the crops will be just fine.
“Everything is looking okay,” Reinke said. “We have officially looked at a couple of different fruit crops. Grapes, the models are all indicating that we’re in good shape regardless of the variety you’re growing. Some of the late bud break peaches and crops like that are in good shape. We still want to confirm that some of the early bud break, the early blooming peach varieties are doing okay. We have not finished evaluating those yet, but we think we’re okay. It didn’t quite get cold enough. A lot of the varieties, a lot of the crops that are still sensitive to weather are probably good until we get down to single digits.”
Reinke says when the fall arrives, the plants acclimate themselves to the colder temperatures and go into a winter mode.
“As we go into the fall, the plants recognize the cooling temperatures and the cycling of warm and cold as we go through a day, and this repeated high-low, high-low that is continually dropping prompts the plant to build in its winter tolerance, its hardiness.”
As the weather warms, they’ll start to deacclimate, “supercharging” themselves for growth throughout the summer.
“Once we get about 50 degrees during the day, the plant really starts recognizing it more aggressively. And so, if we get a series of multiple days in a row where we’re getting into the 50s, 60s, and even potentially the 70s, it really supercharges that deacclimation.”
Fortunately, Reinke says that hasn’t started happening yet.
“We need multiple days in a row for the plant to get into that supercharged mode. One day here, two days there, and then it cools back down isn’t enough to speed that up.”
Reinke says and growers will really start to watch the crops over the next few weeks to see what they do relative to the weather conditions.
“It’s not until we get into the latter couple of weeks of April and the first couple of weeks of May that we really all tighten up our belts and watch very carefully.”
The National Weather Service is predicting relatively mild weather around Southwest Michigan for the next week. Thursday’s high is expected to be in the mid-40s, while highs will get into the 50s throughout the weekend. Temperatures are expected to drop back into the 30s next week.
