Wood has owned the orchards since 1965 and can’t remember a spring this early.
“It’s not just a little bit the earliest, it’s the earliest by miles. I’ve never seen anything like this,” he said. “It’s not a little bit weird … its high weird.”
Northeast farmers aren’t the only ones worrying. The unusually warm weather also had some apple and cherry trees in Michigan blossoming about three weeks earlier than normal. Warm weather in February also led to an early bloom in cherry and pear orchards in the Northwest.
“The odds of having subfreezing temperatures are much greater right now than they would be in the first week of May when we would more typically be in bloom,” said Jon Clements, a fruit expert at University of Massachusetts Extension, who remains cautiously optimistic that the crop will survive without major damage.
If that is the case, the accelerated growing cycle could inevitably lead to an earlier harvest. Strawberries, peaches and early-season apples could be a week to 10 days earlier, Clements said, and juicy McIntosh apples may be ready for picking as early as Labor Day.
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