Figure 1. Growing degree days (base 50F) in Lafayette, IN.
So far it has been a cool spring, that in the northern half of the state has helped hold back bud development. As we can see from Figure 1, in Lafayette we have only accumulated 25 growing Degree Days (GDD), and most of these were the result of two warm days (54 and 63 F) in late February. Since then we have not accumulated any more GDD, so plants have mostly not begun to show any signs of growth. This has brought the timing of growth back into line with the last few years. Note that since 2010, every year has been earlier than the long-term average (“normal” in Fig. 1).