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It has been crazy summer in New Zealand. Hot, wet, cold and plants are acting weirdly. But I just want to make sure what is wrong with my plants. Is it climate or is it soil?

Most of my vegetables are prematurely flowering. Beetroot, Turnip, now spinach. Spinach is not even 2 weeks old. They just got 10 to 12 leaves. Then Cucumber, vines are not even 30cm long and they are flowering too. But cabbage and tomatoes are fine. Is this a nutrition problem or something else?

Because of limited space, I grow them closer together!!

Hope someone can help me to understand what happens, so I can change my growing pattern!!!

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    More details please, especially about the heat. You say it's been hot - how hot? Was it prematurely hot? If so, how many weeks/months early? How much hotter than normal? For example, in my area in the northern US, our last frost date is ~ May 5. Fruit trees bloom between May 2 and May 15. In 2012, we had 80F temps in March and the trees started blooming ~April 10. It then got colder (no freeze tho) & the trees stayed in bloom for a month, but the flowers were kind of dead. This was prematurely warm for us. We had a lousy harvest in all fruits because the bees weren't ready for their flowers.
    – Jurp
    Jan 13 at 3:55
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    You say it's been "Hot, wet, cold". How can you have "hot" and "cold" happening at the same time? What defines "hot" in your mind? What defines "cold" to you? How "wet" is "wet"?
    – warren
    Jan 13 at 15:23
  • It is unusually wet in the summer for the last two years. The average summer temperature is 23C for these months. It is normal to temperature goes up to 33C for some days. But it is the unusual variability of temperature (Sudden variation from 25 to 13). Wet means, if I remember correctly, we received 3 times the average rain last December. One thing I noticed last two years, the Spring Cherry blossoms are at least 1.5 months late. Usually, blossom happens early to mid-August, but for the last two years, it did not happen until late September. (My observation is 'seasons are shifting')
    – Manoj
    Jan 14 at 11:18

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It's the weather. It became warm early (even before spring) and then cold again. Many of our plants have flowered then and flowered again in Spring. And the extraordinary rain has made things weird too.

I am in Auckland.

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