Record low temperatures froze much of Georgia last week. When it
comes to freezing temperatures, survival depends on
timing and location for some Georgia crops, say University of
Georgia experts.
Tough on Early Peaches
Freeze destroyed about 60 to70 percent of the south Georgia
peach
crop last week, said Kathryn Taylor, an Extension horticulturist
with the
UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
About five to 10 percent of Georgia’s peach crop grows in south
Georgia.
Peach tree varieties in south Georgia bud, flower and develop
fruit earlier than those in middle Georgia. These early
varieties
go to market first. Therefore, they bring the most income for
south Georgia growers.
As a tree progresses to full flowering, the developing flowers’
ability to resist freezing temperatures is diminished,
she said.
“The freeze had a devastating effect on the three earliest south
Georgia varieties,” Taylor said. “These trees were in full
bloom.
. . . This (freeze) resulted in a large economic loss for
them.”
At 20 degrees, trees in full bloom will lose 90 percent or more
of their flowers.
No flowers, no fruit.
Warm weather in February caused south Georgia trees to
bloom.
“But this is not particularly early,” Taylor said. ” It was just
time for (these) varieties to bloom.”
Timing Is Everything
Ironically, the freeze may help middle Georgia peach farmers.
Most of the middle Georgia crop remains in the bud stage of
development. Tight buds can stand the freeze. The loss of
slightly swollen buds is only about 10 percent. A peach tree
grows about 10 times as many buds as it needs to produce a full
fruit crop.
“We can spare that 10 percent (loss),” Taylor said. The freeze
reduced the potential fruit load and necessary thinning costs
for growers.
“The (recent) freeze in middle Georgia did not reduce the
expected yield for this summer,” Taylor said.
A later freeze in middle Georgia would be much more damaging to
the state’s peach crop.
How damaging?
“Timing is everything,” Taylor said.
The risk of freeze for much of Georgia usually passes with
Easter.
Chilled Greens
Freezing temperatures raised eyebrows of Georgia’s cabbage and
carrot
farmers, said Terry Kelley, UGA Extension Service
horticulturist.
A mature cabbage “can freeze as hard as a rock,” Kelley said.
But
when it thaws out, it’s usually fine. However, freezing
temperatures can damage newly planted, young cabbage.
“I’m not nearly as concerned with the mature cabbage as I am for
the ones being planted,” Kelley said. Farmers are currently
harvesting mature cabbage while planting another cabbage crop.
It’s hard to tell just how damaging the freeze will be,
Kelley said. Many weeks from now, as the next cabbage crop
progresses, this freeze could cause plants to flower early
instead of producing a cabbage head, cutting heavily into
producers’ bottom line.
Georgia farmers also have about 3,500 acres of carrots in the
ground right now.
“Carrots can take a pretty stiff freeze,” Kelley said. “In
general you won’t
get
root damage unless the ground freezes.”
There was some damage to the tops of carrots, he said. The tops
will grow back, but it exposes the plant to disease and insect
pressure and quality problems at harvest time.
Leafy greens, such as mustard, turnips, kale and collards,
received some damage from the freeze, too.
“Some of the young greens got hammered pretty hard,” Kelley
said.
“I’m sure there will be some replanting to do.”
Sweet and Established
Georgia’s $90 million Vidalia onion crop fared the
freeze
well, according to Reid Torrance, Tattnall County Extension
Service agent, where about 60 percent of the Vidalia onion crop
is
grown.
“Once an onion plant is established, you can have a blistering
cold. It will usually come back out from the cold fairly easy,”
he said.
Some foliage was damaged.
“But you’re going to get that more from the frost than the
freeze,” Torrance said.
Much like carrots, the actual onion bulb isn’t damaged unless
the ground freezes for extended periods. The ground around
Tattnall County froze only a quarter to half an
inch, Torrance said, and for only a short period.
