By Clint Thompson
To use row covers or not to use row covers, that is the question that most strawberry growers in the Southeast have already had to answer this season and likely will have to answer in the near future.
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.
Expert Advice
David Lawrence, regional Extension agent in central Alabama, discussed the use of row covers in an interview with AgNet Media.
“There are a few methods of thought there. Some guys will go out and cover any time the temperatures get that low. That’s typically going to be our smaller acreage guys that don’t have to spend a whole lot of money. Pulling row covers, they don’t have to pay a lot of guys to do that,” Lawrence said. “Just keep them covered for a day or two and then pull the covers back off.”
But growers must remember row covers are not necessarily required every time the temperatures drop below freezing; like the freeze event that occurred during Dec. 15-16.
“Most guys have chosen not to pull any covers yet just because we’re so early in the year. That first cold snap we had (in November), some of those plants hadn’t been in the ground but just a couple of weeks at that point. They were still pretty tender and weren’t acclimated yet. I could totally see and recommend that guys pull row covers at that point,” Lawrence said. “This past event we had (in December), for some of those growers, it costs them a significant amount of money to go out there and pull those row covers. Just being this time of year, I don’t really see that much of an advantage.
“As we get closer to bloom, as we get into February when we have these cold snaps, that’s when we just about recommend for everybody to pull covers at that point.”