The Tree Festival, organized on Sunday, November 24 by the Plant Conservatory of the Barolle estate, in Montesquieu (Lot-et-Garonne), will precede by one day the feast of the patron saint, who wants “to Sainte-Catherine, all wood takes root.” The problem is that climate change and the absence of cold, which are becoming widespread, risk making this proverb look really old.
“Climate change will also have an impact on fruit trees,” explains Jérôme Ossard, director of the Domaine agroecologique de Barolle (DAB), where the Tree Festival is being relaunched after five years of absence following a judicial liquidation, and which will sell fruit trees that have become rare to amateurs. “The young plants continue to grow late in the season and, to be able to uproot a tree, before replanting it, it is necessary that the sap and its reserves have descended into its roots and that it is at vegetative rest, that it does not have more leaves. »
There is no more winter
But at the DAB, which preserves old varieties of fruit, “certain species, including apple trees, remain in leaf very late. They will continue to sweat, and therefore dry out on their feet, and will not resume,” according to Jérôme Ossard. “We also have to count on the intense heat in summer, and the lack of cold in winter, which is more and more regular,” he continues. One day there may be no more apples in our region because there won't be enough winter. But we are here to work on this subject with the arboricultural sectors and the experimentation centers, on each of the fruit varieties. »
Should we then postpone the date of the next Montesquieu Tree Festival? “Everything is imaginable. Currently, we offer trees with bare roots, and we could combine this with potted trees, which can be given time to complete their cycle and which can be purchased early in the season. » But rest assured, Sainte-Catherine should still be suitable for planting.
Tree Festival, Sunday November 24 at Domaine de Barolle, in Montesquieu (47), from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. FREE ENTRANCE.
