By Clint Thompson
This year’s Georgia peach crop is off to a strong start with regards to chill hours. How the early months of spring will affect this year’s crop remains to be seen, however, says peach producer Lee Dickey.
“I think we’ve had a cool fall in our area and started to accumulate a good amount of chill, and there’s a lot of chill in the forecast,” said Dickey, located in Musella, Georgia. “You never can tell what March and April are going to do, but fingers crossed, and we’re very hopeful about this year’s crop.”
Already Recorded
Dickey spoke to AgNet Media at last weekend’s Southeast Regional Fruit and Vegetable Conference in Savannah, Georgia. He said there were already about 550 chill hours recorded in his area, compared to an average of 475 over the prior three years at this point in the calendar year.
“It’s not a whole lot more chill. When you say it, it doesn’t seem like a whole lot more, but the quality of the chill has been really good. It’s been consistently cooler,” Dickey said. “We haven’t had many real extremes. We have some real extremes coming in the forecast, some temperatures in the teens. We’re talking about what or if we’re going to do about that.
“There are several theories out there that once you get below 32 degrees (Fahrenheit) or so, that the chill is not necessarily helping you; it may not be necessarily hurting you either. That tree kind of goes into more preservation versus this is quality chill accumulations. Some people measure it more on simply below 45 degrees. Some models measure it between 32 and 45, and then there’s chill portions and accumulations. There are different ways to look at it.”
Peaches need chill hours to mature. The required chill hours depend on the specific variety growers choose to plant.