Now is not the time to wake up!

February begins tomorrow.

I am reminded of some very warm days occurrring during recent Februaries with memories of over a week of fine warm sunshine basking us before the arrival of March. Buds, not just on fruit trees, will respond given a chance. The soil, however, takes time to warm influencing root activity. An imbalance between the activity of roots and bud development early in the Spring can store up problems when we reach blossom time should the flowers be opening prematurely.

A rule of thumb here is when the first sign of bud break on our Quince is spotted – hopefully not before the last week of February.

On the plus side, the cold weather during both December and January – the best for a number of years – will have contributed to some bold, well programmed, fruit buds.