By Clint Thompson
One North Georgia peach producer is optimistic this year’s crop will have a different ending than a season ago. The crop has already dodged one late season freeze event. The countdown is on for Drew Echols to see if he and other farmers are out of the woods for any future sub-freezing temperatures.
“We got down to 29 (degrees Fahrenheit), and those things, at the stage they were in would take 26, 27. We were splitting hairs,” Echols said. “We’ve still got them right now. We’ve still got a couple of more weeks, though. Up here, we lose more peaches the first 10 days of April than at any other time, so we’re watching that 10-day (forecast). It looks good right now.
“Through April 9, there’s nothing below 41 in the forecast. I feel pretty good, but we need to get through the 10th or 12th, something like that.”
A couple of freeze events in March last year devastated Georgia’s peach crop. Following unseasonably warm temperatures in February, peach trees bloomed too early and were susceptible to cold temperatures just a few weeks later. That was not the case this year, however.
“What was strange was, we got killed on March 14 last year which was the earliest we had ever lost peaches. We normally don’t bloom that early,” Echols said. “We’re blooming on time this year. When they’ve got those petals on them, they’re still pretty strong.
“Right now, we’ve got 100% crop everywhere. It’s going to cost a lot of money to thin this thing, but we’ll spend it.”