By Clint Thompson
What a difference a year made for Georgia’s peach producers. One year after experiencing the lowest of lows with regards to peach production, most of the state’s growers enjoyed the highest of highs with this year’s crop.
Phil Brannen, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension fruit disease specialist, described how different this year’s yield production was.
“I think overall it was a very good year. I think in some cases production was off a little bit. We don’t know exactly why. But probably we’re looking at least 85% to 90% of a crop of what we would expect. That’s not bad,” Brannen said. “Last year was in the 5% range for a lot of people, 10% at the most.”
Unseasonably warm temperatures in February 2023 led to early blooms for the state’s peach trees. It made them vulnerable to late frosts, which occurred in March. The result was a disastrous crop and very minimal production in Georgia.
This year’s crop received high chilling in the winter and dodged any late-season freeze event. The result was high production in most Georgia peach orchards.