The sweet process of growing strawberries began last fall. Acres of young plants went into the ground in mid-October. After going dormant over the winter, the plants start to grow actively as soon as the weather warms. With February temperatures well above average, these berry plants have already got a head start.
But with colder nights ahead, that could change. "March kind of came in here and has brought us February weather, and so what it's done is slow the berries back down," said Matt Rudd with Rudd Farm in Greensboro.
Rudd says it takes about 28 days from bloom to berry. A little math shows you how far ahead of schedule this year's crop really is.
"Right now, what we're seeing is a couple of blooms on a plant. You see some plants with some small berries, so they're probably two weeks ahead of schedule. But what's going to happen in this cold weather is the plants are going to take a pause. They're not really going to change that much. They're just going to kind of sit there," said Rudd.
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