Mid-winter heatwave

[Lorax7]

So, the weather forecast says we're supposed to be getting a major warm-up this week with highs in the 60s (Fahrenheit), although nighttime lows are mostly still mid 30s-ish. This is pretty unusual weather for the upper Midwest, but I'm guessing that folks further south deal with this sort of thing often. How likely is this to knock the trees out of dormancy? When you get weather like this, do you typically do some sort of intervention to try to prevent trees from coming out of dormancy or is this a thing where the shift back to colder temps will reverse course and put the trees back to sleep if they'd started to wake up?

 

[leatherback]

So, the weather forecast says we're supposed to be getting a major warm-up this week with highs in the 60s (Fahrenheit), although nighttime lows are mostly still mid 30s-ish. This is pretty unusual weather for the upper Midwest, but I'm guessing that folks further south deal with this sort of thing often. How likely is this to knock the trees out of dormancy? When you get weather like this, do you typically do some sort of intervention to try to prevent trees from coming out of dormancy or is this a thing where the shift back to colder temps will reverse course and put the trees back to sleep if they'd started to wake up?

This is what most of my winter looks like. In late winter it would indeed trigger trees to start pushing. But early winter normally trees have not had their dormancy hours. So they should not wake up

 

[rockm]

So, the weather forecast says we're supposed to be getting a major warm-up this week with highs in the 60s (Fahrenheit), although nighttime lows are mostly still mid 30s-ish. This is pretty unusual weather for the upper Midwest, but I'm guessing that folks further south deal with this sort of thing often. How likely is this to knock the trees out of dormancy? When you get weather like this, do you typically do some sort of intervention to try to prevent trees from coming out of dormancy or is this a thing where the shift back to colder temps will reverse course and put the trees back to sleep if they'd started to wake up?

A temporary warm up is not a real problem--unless it lasts a week or more.

Trees have to complete winter chilling requirements before they can bud out again in the spring. This is a natural "fail safe" temperate zone trees have evolved to prevent early bud break in late winter and early spring. It is dependent on species (some have shorter chilling hour requirements, some longer) and soil temperature. In general temperate zone trees have to have a soil temp of 40 degrees or warmer for days to begin pushing buds. That is why it is important to store trees where they don't get sun exposure which warms things up dramatically even on cold days.

I would get trees off of benches and mulch them to preserve the cold. Prevent air circulation around the root masses as much as possible. If nights are predicted to drop below 40, expose the root mass to the air, then mulch back over before it warms up in the afternoon...Watch the buds on the trees. Swelling buds isn't great, but not a disaster. A disaster is when those swelling buds break into leaves, even edges of leaves...That means the tree has broken dormancy.

For the most part, I wouldn't worry about this, unless you get a prolonged (like five days) of nighttime temps above 40 or so.

 

[GreatLakesBrad]

I’m in Grand Rapids, and have my tridents and a few Japanese maples in an unheated garage (the rest of my trees are mulched outside).
We had a similar December warm-up last year if you recall here in Michigan.

I noted temps into the 50s in the garage for a few days. I saw no issues with trees becoming active. should be fine!

 

[Lorax7]

I’m in Grand Rapids, and have my tridents and a few Japanese maples in an unheated garage (the rest of my trees are mulched outside).
We had a similar December warm-up last year if you recall here in Michigan.

I noted temps into the 50s in the garage for a few days. I saw no issues with trees becoming active. should be fine!

I guess I wasn't paying as much attention to the weather report last year... probably because I was too busy trying to find a store that had toilet paper in stock.

 

[vp999]

It's supposed to be 72 here tomorrow in the DC are. Crazy ass weather.

 

[John P.]

I have a Miyasama Trident about to leaf out right now in SoCal. Some weird stuff going on … must be something to this climate change thing

 

[sorce]

Good is doing it so that we all go out and replenish our Vitamin D!

Don't let evil keep you from it.

Sorce

 

[PA_Penjing]

It's still late fall, don't rush it haha. I just try to make sure my trees are in the shade on freak warm days. Don't want the pots to heat up in the sun

 

[Forrestford]

It's still late fall, don't rush it haha. I just try to make sure my trees are in the shade on freak warm days. Don't want the pots to heat up in the sun

I was gonna say, The first day of winter is Dec 21!

 

[Lorax7]

I was gonna say, The first day of winter is Dec 21!

Yeah, that’s technically the first day of winter, but as a practical matter winter weather has always begun a lot earlier than that here in Michigan. At least, historically, that was the case. Our climate is obviously changing now and it’s hard to predict what December weather is going to be like from year to year.

 

[Forrestford]

Yeah, that’s technically the first day of winter, but as a practical matter winter weather has always begun a lot earlier than that here in Michigan. At least, historically, that was the case. Our climate is obviously changing now and it’s hard to predict what December weather is going to be like from year to year.

yeah, I gotcha. its been cold here in CT. Im sure Michigan is way worse.