Photo by Mongi Zekri, UF/IFAS
Florida citrus growers are in the middle of harvest season. That means plenty of fruit was still left on the trees prior to last weekend’s winter storm that brought freezing temperatures and dangerous wind chills to the state’s citrus-producing regions. Growers are assessing the negative impacts following the freeze, but they may not know the extent of damage for a couple of weeks.
Mark Ritenour, professor of postharvest technology at the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS), was part of a question-and-answer session that the UF/IFAS Statewide Citrus Team hosted for growers last Thursday ahead of the cold blast. He discussed how freezes can impact fruit quality.
“Of course, you’re going to be looking for ice formation in the field. After a freeze, if it’s bad, you’ll see some field damage but to really be able to look at it in terms of trying to grade out the freeze damage, you’ve got to wait like four weeks before some of the internal tissue will dry out enough and do a density separation on the fruit,” Ritenour said.
The freezing temperatures are expected to negatively impact the fruit’s shelf life, meaning growers may need to revise their marketing plan to move any remaining fruit.
“After a freeze, you want to be able to go to local markets. Some of the tissue is going to be injured, and whenever you have injured peel, it’s going to decay and break down faster,” Ritenour advised. “You can get some off-flavor development, too.”
Get post-freeze citrus management advice here.
By Clint Thompson