A warmer March in Michigan is waking up plants and some crops. But is it too soon?

LANSING, MI (WKZO AM/FM) — For plants, a temperature of 42 is like a wake-up call telling them “it’s spring!”

Dr. Bill Shane of the MS.U. Extension says if a day’s temperature averages 50, we accumulated 8 growing degree days. Growing degree days are a way of telling where we stand in the growing season and with seasonal weather trends.

He says we’re now at 139 growing degree days, well above the 83 we were at during this time in 2020. But it is still well below the 383 that were recorded during record-breaking heat in March of 2012.

Cooler weather to wrap up March could be good for Michigan’s fruit crop. So far, our run of temps in the 70s isn’t unusual, but growers know too many of them early on in the Spring can spell trouble.