By Clint Thompson
Southeast strawberry and peach producers weathered the latest freeze event on March 13. However, they are not out of the woods yet.
University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Fruit Disease Specialist Phil Brannen says growers are yearning for warm temperatures and dry conditions over the next month.
“We’ve got another full month before we’re out of the woods with frost. We just had a pretty major frost event. Until mid-April, we could still have more frost,” Brannen said. “We just have to see how things are going to go. The last two years it’s been pretty tough. We’ll get so far and then have another frost event that’ll take a good portion of the yield.
“We just need to keep praying that we’re going to have another good month of temperatures and the rainfall will hold off to some degree. We need some rain, but we don’t need too much. That would make for good fruit production.”
This production season has been drier than previous years, due to the current La Niña weather pattern. It was evident during the most recent U.S. Drought Monitor report that showed most of the Southeast either abnormally dry or moderately dry. It contributed to less disease pressure for Florida’s strawberry producers. Georgia and Alabama farmers are hoping for the same.
“The amount of rainfall will definitely dictate disease. Where we have a lot of it, we’re going to have more disease,” Brannen said.
