Record spring heat

[Rosyrain]

The last 2 days we had a strange weather system role through Washington and the temperatures have been in the 80s. This is unheard-of around here, but I have to say that I welcomed the warm weather. We broke all sorts of heat records for the area. I wonder if unseasonably warm temperatures would have negative effects on crops and plant growth, or would this do them some good?

 

[Chuck]

In my experience all of these up and down temps are not conducive for good crops. Take peaches for example. They all must have a certain amount of chilling hours and a few days of warm weather will make them think it is time to bloom and they do only to have a cold spell knock off the blooms a little later. Think about soil temps. The soil warms up and the plants love it only to have it get cold again thus putting them into a period of no or greatly slowed growth. This will affect the later growth when the time and the temperature is actually correct. Tomatoes will not set and drop their blooms more than usual. Peppers like to be warm and are really susceptible to dropping temps. So I guess what I am trying to say is that the unseasonable warm weather is great if it would just stay there and not get cold again

 

[arthnel]

I love the break down that @Chuck gave earlier. The first thing that came to my mind were the crops that used temperature change to determine it was time to bloom. Plants are resilient and will live on but it may affect the output of the crop just by changes in the usual weather and temperature they have become accustomed to.