Mild winters result in smaller fruit harvests

Blossoms are delayed

Mild winters result in smaller fruit harvests

Mild winter temperatures have a negative impact on the fruit harvest. Because fruit trees bloom too late and not at the same time, as the professor emeritus for conservation biology Bruno Baur said in an interview with Swiss radio on Tuesday.

Fruit trees have a protective mechanism so that they don’t bloom as early as January. This dissolves after a certain number of cold days, as Baur further said. In a mild winter, flowering is thus delayed.

This in turn has a major impact on the pollen exchange of the bees that fly around for pollination. At worst, mild winters could also prevent blooms from forming. According to Baur, previously well-functioning ecosystems are drifting apart with increasingly mild winters.