What to do if your trees and plants are prematurely budding with the unseasonal temps
Following a cool October with a surprising snowfall, an unseasonably warm November has confused some trees and shrubs around Wichita. Thinking it’s spring already, they’ve begun breaking out with buds.
While experts say that trees beginning to bud too early in the early spring or late winter isn’t a rare sight, it is less common that they start to bud in fall. Tree growth patterns depend heavily on the weather to tell them what to do, and weather fluctuations in recent months are likely the cause for trees beginning to bud.
This November’s average monthly temperature is nearly six degrees hotter than it usually is, while October was 3.5 degrees cooler than average, according to Vanessa Pearce, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Wichita. Overall, 2020 has been warmer than usual.
“We’re not talking crazy (increases). You’re talking a couple of degrees,” Pearce said. “This month so far is the most extreme and has the highest difference between what normal is and what the average is so far.”
When late summers and early falls have hot, dry spells, some plants and trees will shed some leaves and go into a summer dormancy to survive.
“We call that a stress-induced summer, which could have been exacerbated this year because of that really kind of crazy October freeze, cold spell and snow,” said Dr. Jason Griffin, director of the John C. Pair Horticultural Center. “They get that first break of rain and cool weather, and they think ‘All right, let’s give it a shot’ and send out a few buds.”
There’s no reason for concern if it’s just a few buds, and experts recommend refraining from pruning or trimming the trees.
“It can be alarming to see, but unless the entire tree is breaking dormancy and the whole tree is going into new vegetated growth, it should be fine,” Griffin said. “Don’t overreact. Don’t panic. These trees have been around a lot longer than us, and they’ll probably be just fine.”
Any new growth developed on the trees at this point will likely not harden off, according to Griffin
“The next freeze we get, that new growth will die,” Griffin said. “But the main tissue back in the stem, the trunk and root systems will be just fine.”
While little can be done to slow bud development on plants, Kansans can take steps to make sure their trees and plants can overcome any problems caused by breaking their dormancy and making buds, such as watering during dry periods in the winter.
“We don’t think about it, but often our winters are a little bit drier, and so tree’s root systems can suffer drought injury during the winter,” said Matthew McKernan, a horticulture agent with Sedgwick County’s K-State Research and Extension Office. “It’s a lot harder for a tree to deal with both damaged roots and damaged buds and recover from that, rather than if we can eliminate the root damage or the dry conditions by doing some watering right now.”
McKernan recommends watering trees and plants once a month, depending on how dry it is, and watering at least 6-12 inches deep.
“People often think about drought during the summer months when it’s hot, but drought conditions can also persist through the winter and cause damage there too,” McKernan said. “So just pulling out those garden hoses on a warm, sunny day can be a great way to help your plants and reduce some damage that you might see in the spring.”
