By Clint Thompson
Two sub-freezing weather events in recent weeks have impacted Georgia’s peach crop.
Jeff Cook, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Agriculture and Natural Resources agent for Peach and Taylor counties, believes the early-maturing peaches were the varieties impacted the most by temperatures that dropped below 30 degrees Fahrenheit (F) in consecutive weeks.
“It looks like our earlier stuff took a little hit, but our mid-June on (varieties) were okay,” Cook said. “I would say early stuff got hit hard. From June on is where we hit our major volume any way. I think those peaches will hopefully be okay.
“A peach bloom can handle 10% kill if it’s like 26 or 27 degrees F. It was below freezing for a while, but it wasn’t like last year. Last year it was below freezing for like 10 hours. This was not the same duration.”
The impact also varies from orchard to orchard depending on where the peaches were in the maturation process. The same variety may not be as affected in one orchard when compared to another in a nearby county.
“One variety in five different locations, it might be at five different stages of growth. My scarlet prince, which are like a late June or early July (variety), I was already past bloom (with my research trees); in commercial orchards, most of the scarlet prince I saw, it was barely full bloom. Mine were probably in a worst place with this cold than a lot of the commercial guys.”
According to the University of Georgia Weather Network, the temperature dropped to 28 F in Fort Valley, Georgia on March 15. The low temperature the following day was 30 F. It got even colder a week later, with temperatures dropping to 26 F on March 20.