ROOM TO GROW: Warm weather effects on plants shouldn't be long-lasting

The unseasonably warm December temperatures had our Georgia plants confused. Some gardeners reaped unforeseen benefits, such as an extension for their warm-season vegetables. One Bibb County Master Gardener reported pepper production and flowering okra on Christmas Eve.

While not ideal, blueberries, peaches and a few ornamental cherries started to bloom. Some of the plants we are accustomed to seeing bloom in late winter/early spring, such as Japanese magnolia and forsythia, were at almost full bloom in some places.

Should we be concerned about the effects of these atypical temperatures on our plants and is there anything we can do to help?

In a recent Georgia FACES article, University of Georgia horticulturist Bodie Pennisi noted that there is still hope for those early bloomers. The key is to be patient and wait to see what happens.

While January and February are the ideal months to prune many ornamentals and fruit trees, pruning off spent blooms is not advised.

According to Pennisi, pruning now will not force the tree or shrub to make new blooms. If plants are pruned now, healthy blossoms, which will open later in the spring, may in fact be removed.

Pruning spring-blooming shrubs now won't reset the clock and force the tree to produce new buds in the spring.

Unfortunately, nothing can be done for the buds that opened earlier than spring. There are still unopened buds on these plants, so folks should still be able to enjoy spring blooms. There may be fewer blooms, but they will be there.

Spring-blooming trees and shrubs produce all of their flowering buds during the previous summer, when they have energy to spare. The buds stay dormant in the tree or shrub through the winter until warmer weather triggers their release.

For more information about caring for landscape plants after freezing weather, see the UGA Extension publication "Winter Protection of Ornamental Plants" at www.extension.uga.edu/publications.

Fruit producers, particularly those growing peaches, blueberries and strawberries, depend on a certain amount of cold temperatures or chill hours for a successful crop.

To put it simply, chill hours measures the number of hours that temperatures are 45 degrees and below from October through February.

Since 2011, chill hours in Middle Georgia have ranged from 826-1,240. The warm conditions in December caused the lowest number of winter chill hours for fruit-producing trees and bushes in more than a decade, which could reduce the yield of peaches and other fruit in the coming season.

UGA peach specialist Dario Chavez noted on his blog that while December was warm, we still have January and February -- forecast to be colder than normal temperatures -- to make up for the deficit in chill hours. Many farmers are hopeful that the return of seasonably cool temperatures in January will supply enough chill hours to salvage the state's fruit-growing season.

For more information about how Georgia's climate impacts agriculture, visit the Climate and Agriculture in the South East blog at www.blog.extension.uga.edu/climate or visit www.gaclimate.com.

For additional weather information and tools to track chill hours, soil temperature, rainfall and more, visit www.georgiaweather.net.

Contact county Extension agent Karol Kelly at karolk@uga.edu.

This story was originally published January 13, 2016 at 9:32 PM with the headline "ROOM TO GROW: Warm weather effects on plants shouldn't be long-lasting ."