By Clint Thompson
A recap of the 2026 freeze event that impacted Florida’s blueberry season will be discussed during the industry’s upcoming fall meeting, scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 15, in Lakeland, Florida.
The Florida Blueberry Growers Association, in collaboration with the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) Blueberry Extension, will host the meeting.
Doug Phillips, UF/IFAS Blueberry Extension Coordinator and one of the featured speakers, plans to rehash last year’s challenging season, which focuses on the generational freeze event. One of the lessons that Phillips hopes growers will learn is how they manage their crop amid future freeze events.
“I mean, the nature of this freeze we had last February was unique. It was probably the most unique, most extreme freeze event the state’s had in decades,” Phillips said. “So, hopefully, it won’t be a recurring type of thing. But I think some of the lessons learned were that there are certain extreme weather conditions where it might not be the best decision to run water for freeze protection.
“One of the big things with this freeze event that we had in February was, at least for the first night of the freeze, it was extremely low temperatures but also high sustained winds. That means you’re not going to get good coverage for that freeze protection that you would normally get. And since the freeze lasted for a few days, you had growers that chose to run water that ran for maybe three days. You definitely saw some plant damage from the ice loads that were on those plants, as well as some of the farms. Their sprinkler risers also tipped and broke, which meant you had no water pressure left in the system.
“There may be certain extreme weather conditions that don’t lend themselves to effective freeze protection, I think is one big lessons learned.”