The weird weather of the past few weeks has meant apricot trees are not yet blossoming in the south while they are actually blossoming early in the north (i.e. Emilia Romagna). No particular anomalies have been reported for peach trees.
Andrea Grassi, technical manager at Apofruit, explained that "if we analyse the situation in the south, we can see how some apricot varieties have not blossomed yet, while others have. There's an enormous difference in behaviour."
At the same time, many varieties in Emilia Romagna have blossomed 7-10 days early, meaning operators are afraid temperatures might drop again.
"Temperatures have been a bit weird all over Italy, but luckily peach trees do not seem to be affected by it."
"In the south, we are also noticing a problem, as flowers and buds seem to be falling. There could be many reasons for it, but we can say that many varieties have lost their leaves too late and continued vegetating for too long and the temperature changes have also had an effect."
But this does not mean productivity will be affected, as everything depends on the weather during the next few weeks.