Midstate farmers on alert as warm weather settles in a bit early this year

Fluctuating temperatures put the fall crops at-risk.

• Julia Agos/WITF
  BioRecent Stories

  

  Julia Agos was a reporter and the host of All Things Considered for WITF.

(Dillsburg) – As the midstate begins to see more warmer days, farmers are hoping temperatures hold steady.

The warmer weather signals to tress it is time to wake up from winter dormancy. But if they blossom too early and then a cold snap hits, the flowers will freeze.

And without a flower, that means the tree will not produce fruit like apples and peaches in the fall.

“Next week, it’s going to be warm again. The more we have of that, and the longer we have of that, then the closer we get to the tree starting to blossom,” said Karen Paulus, co-owner of Paulus Orchard in Cumberland County. “That’s when it becomes a problem. If those temperatures dropped down again.”

It is the fluctuating temperatures that put the fall crops at-risk.

But Paulus is not too worried yet because their trees are still dormant.

She noted that will change once the warm weather arrives for good.

“That starts your clock until you get your fruit. And you have to keep moving forward with warmer temperatures and not go back to winter temperatures,” she said.

Paulus has worked to diversity its crops, like introducing strawberries and blueberries in recent years, so there’s a safety net if some crops do fail.

The farm has also opened its property for agritourism – like pumpkin picking and a corn maze – to help sustain operations in down years.