Spring is Here!

By Trey Wyatt –

Yeah, Spring is here, not sure how long but let’s enjoy it while we can. At the tree farm, everything is really growing which is always exciting. We have had a good growing season so far. Intermittent rain, no late freezes or frost. Remember you can have a hard frost on a night with a clear sky and little to no wind even when temperatures are above 32 degrees. If you have never been up before sunrise and watched in a short matter of time the frost forms just before sunrise. It’s an amazing sight. Everything goes from normal to white in a matter of minutes. These frosts do serious damage to the new growth and can create a major problem. In the river bottom or low places where the heavier cold air settles, the frosts are much more likely. The radiational cooling from the ground means temperatures at the surface of the soil can be up to 10 degrees cooler than the air 4-5’ above the ground as temperature approaches the dew point.

The new growth we see in the spring is the result of the root development of the plants over the winter. Roots are active on most plants anytime the soil temperature is above 55 degrees. There are exceptions Asian Jasmine ground cover needs a root zone temperature of 65 degrees. So growers need ground heat like a warm water system by heating mats or incorporated in the floor. This is why I check the roots on the Asian Jasmine when we receive it in the spring. With the majority of the tree farms production as pot-in-pot containers in the ground, we can provide a perfect environment for root development as our ground temperatures are more consistent. Remember roots are the beginning of the process of photosynthesis. This requires the tree to gather and lift water all the way up the tree to the top. Water weighs 8lbs per gallon. So the tree requires a lot of energy to do the heavy lifting required. We are always amazed at the growth of our plants in the spring given the right nutrients, water and growing conditions. Also remember vast amounts of energy we used today originally started with Photosynthesis. Either the wood our ancestors used to the hydrocarbon gas, coal, diesel etc that we use today are because of the energy gathered from Photosynthesis. They are ancient remains of organisms that gathered their energy from Photosynthesis. Obviously all the foods we consume for our energy also originated from plants which gathered energy from the sun through Photosynthesis. Basically all life forms on earth are the result of this transfer of energy from the sun. We live because of plants. Let’s Celebrate them!