Winter is my least favourite season, so I’ve been pleasantly surprised that this year has been quite mild in Australia.
The other week, while eating breakfast, I noticed something unusual in my backyard – one of the trees had already started to grow three figs.
I’m no expert, but I was quite sure this is wildly strange, being the middle of winter in Adelaide, since the trees are meant to be dormant.
When I visited my 80-year-old grandma and told her what I saw, she looked at me, perplexed.
“What do you mean? That’s not right,” she laughed.
An Aussie noticed a strange sight in her backyard one morning in mid-July.
(Carina Stathis/Yahoo Lifestyle)
My grandma has always had a green thumb and knowledge of gardening way beyond my years, with a giant backyard full of fruits, vegetables, trees and flowers to show for it.
At the moment, our rental has a pomegranate, fig, and mandarin tree, plus some spinach growing in the corner.
Do some fruits grow in winter in Australia?
As this year’s winter in both Adelaide and Sydney has been incredibly mild, this is likely one reason contributing to the early growth of fruit spotted on trees.
Even my Sydney mother-in-law has noticed flowers beginning to bloom in her garden.
Fig trees tend to fruit twice a year – in late winter or early spring and again in late Summer into early Autumn, according to About The Garden. But never in the middle of July.
David Caruso, CEO of Australian lawn and garden shop Lawn Care Company, told Yahoo Lifestyle that a mild winter season is “very likely” part of the reason the fruit is growing early.
“Fruit trees don’t work off dates; they work off the cold,” he said.
The other week, while eating breakfast, I noticed something unusual in my backyard – one of the trees had already started to grow three figs.
(Carina Stathis)
“Deciduous trees like apples, pears and stone fruit need to bank a decent run of cold weather over winter before they’ll wake up properly.
“When that cold doesn’t turn up, and you get a warm stretch on the end of it, some trees take it as the starting gun.”
RELATED:
However, be warned that this isn’t a blanket rule, as mild winters can sometimes cause the opposite to happen, and the fruit grows too late.
“They can also come out late and patchy, with one branch flowering and the rest still asleep. Either way, the tree is confused,” David said.
At the moment, our rental has a pomegranate, fig, and mandarin tree, plus some spinach growing in the corner.
(Carina Stathis)Should Aussies change their gardening schedule this year?
Even if you see fruits growing early this year, David said don’t rush to change your gardening routine.
For fruit trees, he said it’s essential to protect the early blossom rather than encourage more of it.
“Watch the frost forecast. If a cold night is coming, water the ground under the tree that afternoon, because damp soil holds heat and gives it back overnight,” he suggested.
“Throw a sheet or some frost cloth over anything small and pull it off in the morning. Hold off on pruning and go easy on nitrogen feed, because both push out soft new growth, and soft growth is the first thing a frost kills.
“I think what people are seeing is that plenty of fruit trees flower before they leaf out. So you get a bare, wintry-looking tree covered in blossom, and it looks fast asleep – but it isn’t. It just grows the flowers first and worries about leaves later.”
Want the latest lifestyle and entertainment news? Make sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.
Comments are closed.