Years of extreme drought, this summer's extreme heat causing early fall color change in Minnesota
CHASKA, Minn. -- Your eyes are not deceiving you -- fall colors are already creeping in. It's a trend that the pros are eyeing, too.
Erin Buchholz is the plant health specialist at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum.
"What I'm seeing here at the arboretum is some fall color very early," Buckhholz said. "We're only mid-August, so it's a little bit of a shock to the system. I wouldn't expect to see it for quite a while yet."
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She explained why the trees are already shedding leaves.
"The trees themselves are exhibiting stresses. It could be drought-related, it could be heat-related," she said.
Even the recent rain she says is a mere drop in the bucket. And that scarcity of rain is bad for tree health in general.
"Most of our trees are stressed out, so we're seeing a lot more borer damage on trees that we might not see it on otherwise," she said.
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There's no doubt the drought is throwing things off, but Buckhholz says it won't steal the show this fall.
"We're still gonna see some beautiful, bold fall color," she said. "I'm not seeing as many leaves falling early as I have the last couple of years, so there is hope there."
As for protecting your own trees, Buckhholz says do not fertilize this time of year, but keep watering around the trunk of dry trees.
