Photo courtesy of Lindy Savelle
The short timeframe when temperatures dipped below freezing this week in the cold-hardy citrus region appears to have not been problematic for trees.
That’s the preliminary assessment shared by Mary Sutton, University of Georgia (UGA) assistant professor and citrus Extension specialist. Sutton emphasized that the few hours that temperatures dropped into the 20s early Tuesday morning was a lot better scenario than if it stayed colder for much longer.
“In a lot of the places, it looks like it was maybe between 26 (degrees Fahrenheit) and 28 for just a few hours,” Sutton said. “It wasn’t a very long freeze. If it had been 28 (degrees) for eight hours or 12 hours, we probably would have seen a lot worse damage. Since it stayed above 28 degrees for the most part, I think that’s what made it okay this time around.”
Sutton emphasized that further scouting of groves is needed, and a definitive statement on the freeze’s impact on the citrus crop cannot be made yet. At the very least, the fruit colored up more rapidly as a result of the colder temperatures.
“I’m still out trying to get an idea of what’s happened. But so far, what I’ve seen is the mature trees seem fine. Some of the younger ones might have gotten a little damage, but that could have been with how the freeze protection was used,” Sutton said. “The fruit seemed like it colored up pretty quickly. We hope the Brix has gone up from the cold. It’ll probably be next week before we can really tell if the freeze caused any long-term damage to the fruit. So far, everything looks like it made it through okay. I’m still out scouting and trying to get an idea.”
By Clint Thompson