By Clint Thompson
Inclement weather predicted for this upcoming weekend and into early next week should prompt North Alabama strawberry producers to initiate a specific management practice. At least that’s what Eric Schavey, regional Extension agent in Northeast Alabama, is advising his growers when they call asking him what to do.
“I said I’m covering if I’m you,” Schavey said. “It’s mid-to-late January here. We need to be thinking about covering any way. I said, cover, and if it ices on it, that’s fine. That’s just insulation. What we don’t want it to do is rain, freeze and rain and freeze. Then we start getting a lot of burn, because it’s thawing and going through your cover. If it’ll just come in and ice over it, that’s just insulation.
“They’re saying we could be in the single digits on Tuesday. I’m hoping for some wind to evaporate some of this stuff. If we can get a later ice on our frost cloth, it’ll stay and insulate it. That may be the best thing for us.”
Northeast Alabama is part of the Southeast region in the path of a major winter storm this weekend. Freezing rain is expected. But growers should expect to keep their row covers on the strawberries through early next week.
“We’re supposed to get a little rain Friday, come in Saturday through Saturday night; Sunday, some scattered showers on Monday and then cold, dry air on Tuesday,” Schavey said. “Wednesday of next week, we may have some 60s. It may go from a high of 28 (degrees Fahrenheit) and a low of 9, to a high of 60 and low of 35. Welcome to North Alabama.”
According to UGA Extension, row covers are “simply miniature greenhouses placed directly over the row of crops.” Producers mostly implement row covers to protect plants from the adverse effects of cold winds and frost.