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Peach farmers on alert for freeze
United States
Wednesday 26 March 2008
Peach farmers will be on guard this week as forecasters are calling for a late freeze — similar to one at Easter last year that decimated the crop.
“We have the ideal type of weather that we’re looking for — mostly warm, sunny days and nights that aren’t too cool, and our peach bloom is progressing as we hoped it would,” Desmond Layne, professor of horticulture at Clemson University and state peach specialist, told The Greenville News.
The National Weather Service issued a freeze watch for late Monday through this morning for much of the state.
Layne said peaches can take a light freeze, as long as temperatures don’t drop into the 20s.
Last year’s freeze came April 7-8 and cut the peach crop to 8,000 tons from 60,000 tons the previous year. It was the third-smallest peach crop on record since 1910.
Tom Fisher, 62, of Greer lost his crop last year. This week, he says, his orchards are at the stage called “in the pink.” That’s when the buds turns into pink blossoms. By April 10, Fisher said, small peaches will replace those blossoms. “That’s when they’re the most vulnerable,” he said.
“We have the ideal type of weather that we’re looking for — mostly warm, sunny days and nights that aren’t too cool, and our peach bloom is progressing as we hoped it would,” Desmond Layne, professor of horticulture at Clemson University and state peach specialist, told The Greenville News.
The National Weather Service issued a freeze watch for late Monday through this morning for much of the state.
Layne said peaches can take a light freeze, as long as temperatures don’t drop into the 20s.
Last year’s freeze came April 7-8 and cut the peach crop to 8,000 tons from 60,000 tons the previous year. It was the third-smallest peach crop on record since 1910.
Tom Fisher, 62, of Greer lost his crop last year. This week, he says, his orchards are at the stage called “in the pink.” That’s when the buds turns into pink blossoms. By April 10, Fisher said, small peaches will replace those blossoms. “That’s when they’re the most vulnerable,” he said.
