WACO, Texas (KXXV) — Here in Central Texas, temperatures have been on a roller coaster, so how does it impact our plants, fruits and vegetables? Texas A&M Professor Larry Stein talks on what can happen when this weather pattern comes through.
- Cold temperatures can cause freezing, which ruptures plant cells, leading to tissue death and damage.
- High temperatures can cause protein denaturation, damaging plant cells and leading to growth suppression or death.
Moisture is what bridges the hot-cold gap for vegetation to flourish.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Spring weather can be unpredictable. It’s cold one day, then hot the next.
“So extremes are really tough on plants,” said Dr. Larry Stein, Professor at Texas A&M’s Horticultural Sciences.
Dr. Larry Stein with Texas A&M Horticultural Sciences says these waves of temperatures can significantly impact the plants around us.
“When we get the freeze, like we had a freeze in Lubbock, in in that part of the world, we had some in the hill country. I mean, that's devastating because you're losing that spring flush, and you're going to lose the fruit. A lot of times the fruits on that first flush like on grapes, peaches, the first thing that comes out is a flower, and so that can be really, really tough,” Dr. Stein said.
Losing any plants can put a strain on our environment, but one thing Dr. Stein suggests is—
“The weather extremes can be mediated by moisture.”
That means, “The better our water relations for the plant in the ground, the more stress that it can tolerate, and usually the amount of stress is not so bad. So right now, where I work, we're in the, we're extreme, extraordinary drought. I mean, it's big-time dry. And so those people that have been watering their plants, their plants are probably going to fair ok, but if you haven't been water, and you go through these extremes, it just makes it worse.”
So when it comes to growing fruits and vegetables this season—
“The big thing with fruit production is site selection, site selection. So, cold air settles into pockets, cold air sets into the pockets. And so if you're growing fruits, stone fruit, blackberries, things like that, you don't want to plant in a valley. You want to be up on a hillside so that cold air drains away. So, our vegetable farmers, what they can do is they can mediate the soil temperature by using plastic. So we mulch these beds with plastic, and so that heats up the soil, and so that gets these plants off to a better start. So you have that option as well,” Dr. Stein said.
