CRAWFORD COUNTY, Ga. — Freezing temperatures and lots of wind: the Peach State sure saw a lot of that last weekend.
Peach farmers felt it, too. Dickey Farms in Crawford County saw temperatures in the mid-20s. Unfortunately for Lee Dickey, that falls right in the unsweet spot when flowers start to bloom.
According to Jeff Cook, a peach agent for the state, 18- to 25-degree weather can be lethal for the fuzzy fruits. There's not much a peach farmer can do to protect their crops, he said. While blueberry farmers can freeze their crops and strawberry farmers can put blankets on the bushes, there are too many variables with peach trees.
Freezing won't work because the orchards are so big. Blankets won't work because the trees are different sizes. It can be a painful problem.
"We were set up for a really good year with the cold, and then we had that warm spell a couple weeks ago for about 10 days," Cook said, "So we had a lot of flowers opening and buds swelling."
Cook says he could smell plants dying when things started warming up on Monday. He said he didn't want to go to work after the cold snap just to see what he thought would be decimated crops across Central Georgia. He was surprised at how many blossoms were still alive.
Dickey said the same. He says there was a bright spot: the wind.
"We didn't have frost settle that night," Dickey said. "And you know, some of the blooms that weren't at full bloom maturity, I think those are the ones that really survived."
Even though it could have been worse, Lee Dickey thinks he lost about 30- to 40-percent of his early season crop. He's hopeful his mid-season and late-season crops will come through for a productive year.
Cook says he thinks the first peaches of the season will hit the shelves in early June.