Warm weather spell is concerning to area fruit, vegetable farmers

Area farmers say the financial impact this week's warm weather spell will have on their crops won't be known for months.

Usually at this time of year, farmers are watching their fields until about mid-May, waiting for the final frost of the season.

This year's turn of weather events has farmers watching their fields, waiting for cold weather to return stay until that final frost. Temperatures in the region are expected to remain in the 60s this week, much higher than normal.

How much damage -- if any -- will be done to crops won't be known for some time.

Monnin Fruit Farm is closed for the season, but at least 1,500 fruit trees and plants need to be pruned.

Weeks-early buds on some fruit trees are causing worry among farmers.

"We worry about the fruit trees starting to come out and bud early, earlier than what they're supposed to, and how that affects the tree is that once they start to come out, they won't stop," co-owner Glenn Monnin told News Center 7's Natalie Jovonovich on Monday afternoon.

When temperatures fall again, crops will suffer damage more easily because this week's warm spell has triggered the maturity cycle.

"The fruit's starting to turn, it's going to start to grow and there's no way to stop it, it could turn cold again, it may slow it down, but they're still going to keep coming out," Monnin said. "We really don't want the warm weather, we enjoy it, but we don't want it. We'd like to see it stay cold for at least another month."

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