How rainfall affects plant growth
WATKINS GLEN, NY (WETM) – Crop growth can be affected by rainfall amounts. Excess rain can hinder the oxygen to the soil, but during the flowering period, it can be helpful to fuel the plant in its growth.
With higher excess in rain, disease becomes more likely for plants, along with many other issues. Fungal problems are also possible in vineyards. Other than that, excess rain doesn’t make too much of a difference.
“The excess rain isn’t a bad thing this time of year just due to the flowering and puts that extra water into them. It obviously makes a lot of other things difficult. Disease pressure gets higher, issues like that get higher, any work in the field gets more difficult just because it’s muddy out” says Alec Moore, owner of Apples & Moore and the Commercial Ag Educator for Cornell Cooperative Extension of Schuyler County.
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Farming becomes difficult as well since muddy conditions make it harder to use machinery effectively. Plants can be torn up and potentially cause more damage.
Excess water can also cause crops to produce early. The apple orchards expect to see apples ripen by the end of August, while the vineyards hope to see wine grapes ripen by the end of the first week in September.
But both can also expect to see this happen a few days earlier if the rain continues.
To find out more about apple orchards, you can visit the Apples & Moore website. For vineyards, you can visit the Lakewood Vineyards website.
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