Warm weather causing some orchard trees to bloom early

The consecutive days of warm winter weather are causing some orchard trees to bloom early. The situation could cause problems or an early harvest for growers, though only time will tell.

Greg Banes, with Gold State Nut Company in Gridley, said he agreed that it’s too early to tell at this point, but he’s keeping an eye on the crops he manages.

“The walnut trees won’t push out for a while, and I think the almonds could push out sooner, but it’s too early to tell,” Banes said. “With this kind of weather, it could be an early harvest for us and other growers.”

Gold State Nut Company grows walnuts and is a drying and processing facility.

“I don’t think it’s been this warm for this many consecutive days as long as I can remember,” Banes said.

Franz Niederholzer, University of California Cooperative Extension farm advisor for Colusa, Sutter and Yuba counties, said it’s too early to tell if it will be problematic.

“Heat and early bloom could affect the almond crop (reduce, but not eliminate) which would hurt, but it’s too early to tell,” Niederholzer said. “Heat also means no chilling, for now. We have had experience with heat in January and February that breaks back to normal, eventually.”

Beekeeper Jeremiah Farrell said he moved all of his more-than 250 colonies to facilitate the early blooming almond trees.

“I had to bring all the bees to the orchards about two weeks early,” he said. “Typically, almonds are the first fruit trees to cycle in the season, then the stone fruits like pears, peaches and prunes.”