Temperature changes can be problematic for farmlands, according to experts

TYLER, Texas (KLTV) - Well into May and East Texas crop growers and gardeners are seeing healthy plants, but the variables for success are always tenuous.

With just the right amount of rain and warm temperatures, East Texas gardens and farmlands are looking healthy, but there’s always a problem lingering somewhere.

Such as recent cooler overnights turning to warm days.

“Whenever your talking about the weather jumping back and forth from the freezing to the warmer weather its actually a minus,” says Texas A&M agri-life extension agent Shanequa Davis.

It can inhibit seed germination and blooming, causing replanting, and lower of delayed fruit production.

And as we’ve seen many times in the past, saturating rains of spring can deplete nutrients from soil, and take much needed oxygen away, causing root rot and fungus.

In previous years, the torrential rains of winter and spring, forced many East Texas farmers to start over and replant.

mulching can be beneficial in saving a plant.

“Mulching around your plants. You can use wood chips, you can use pine straw. It maintains and holds that moisture in the ground,” Davis says.

And when the heat arrives, remember it’s best to water in early morning so the plants can absorb the moisture without evaporation from high temperatures.

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