Growers Assessing Cold Damage
January 11, 2010 Reports are coming in from across Florida on the damage incurred from a second blast of cold air over the weekend.
“The reports we are getting tell us there is frozen fruit as well as twig and leaf damage out there now it may be days or weeks until we figure out whether there is long-term tree damage,” said Michael W. Sparks, executive VP/CEO of Florida Citrus Mutual. “All of the information is anecdotal at this point and varies literally from grove to grove so we won’t be able to come out with a definitive answer until USDA accounts for the cold snap in the monthly crop forecast, probably in February.”
Grower Maury Boyd reported frozen fruit in his Lake and Orange County groves. He also noted groves in Collier and Hendry saw 12-plus hours below 28 on Sunday night through Monday morning.
Initial reports from Uncle Matt’s Organic indicate the freezing temperatures caused widespread light to moderate damage to the fruit in its Lake and Polk County citrus groves. "We have a little bit of ice in the fruit, but it’s not what we call hard ice," says Benny McLean, Production Manager for Uncle Matt’s. "It’s more of a slush that really doesn’t affect the yield on the juice."
McLean added that what will be lost for fresh fruit this season would be a small inventory of "zipper skin" or thin-skinned fruit like honey tangerines, temple oranges and tangelos, while the condition of remaining Valencias and Hamlins for the 5 lb. bags appears better than expected.
"We have a few areas with grapefruit, oranges and tangerines that have not been damaged by the freeze which can continue to be harvested and sold as fresh fruit for the next 90 days," adds Ben McLean III, Vice President of Research and Development for Uncle Matt’s. "What you’re going to see is a limited supply in fresh fruit, and any fruit ineligible for fresh consumption can be sent to processing plant for juice. The effects of this freeze, because it was not severe, will not affect juice quality in regards to flavor or nutritional content whatsoever."
The production department for Uncle Matt’s also reported that the trees themselves fared exceptionally well. There are no reports of wood damage and little, if any, leaf damage despite many days and hours of cold, freezing temperatures.
On the plus side for citrus, the hard cold weather stetch should knock back populations of the citrus psyllid, which is the vector of greening. In addition, OJ futures prices spiked to a two-year high over the weeked due to damage concerns.
As feared, strawberry growers had to turn their sprinklers on their crops earlier Sunday night, approximately 5:30 p.m. and they were still operating at 8:30 a.m. Monday morning, with temperatures hovering around 30 degrees.
But the Florida Strawberry Growers Association reports that at this time plant damage appears to be remarkably low and confined to areas experiencing isolated failures of irrigation equipment. Plants are obviously stressed from so many nights of watering, and harvesting is almost at a standstill.
According to Paul Cardwell, with the State Farmers’ Market, Homestead/Florida City temperatures dropped to the high 20’s with 10 mph winds at 2:00 a.m. Monday morning. Farmers started their overhead irrigation at that time and can be seen in avocado groves, snap bean, squash, tomatoes, and zucchini fields.
For a more detailed report of the cold damage, go to
http://ag-er.blogspot.com/.
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