By Clint Thompson
Looming frigid temperatures this weekend across the Southeast means strawberry growers need to consider implementing row covers to protect this year’s crop.
Jeff Cook, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension agriculture and natural resources agent for Peach and Taylor counties, is recommending his growers put row covers on ahead of temperatures that are expected to drop into the teens. He’s also suggesting that growers leave them on for a few extra days into next week amid the low nighttime temperatures.
“I’ve been telling people that if I had the manpower and had the row covers, I would cover them. If you’re looking at 15 degrees (Fahrenheit F) and 16F and they give you the prediction for that, that’s at five feet. A foot off the ground at a strawberry bed can be 3F to 5F cooler,” Cook said.
“You’ve got to think about it, there’s a cost associated with putting them on. If you pay to put them on, you may as well leave them on for a minute, while nighttime temperatures are pretty cold. You may get a little bit of additional growth, but it shouldn’t be bad if you leave them on for a week or so.”
Row Covers Description
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.
Cook expects to see impacts following the weekend’s weather that are forecasting single digit wind chills.
“We’ll see red leaves when this is done, and we’ll see some frost and freeze damage on leaves, but that doesn’t bother me one bit. It’s when you get it into the crown. That’s what’s going to hurt if it gets that cold,” Cook said.
Cook added that he would not have had a problem with producers who wanted to have row covers on their crop all week this week.
“This is three weekends in a row now that I wouldn’t have argued with anybody that had them covered up, any of these times,” Cook added.