After freeze, farmers wait to see what fruits will produce
By Steve Herring
Published in News on March 30, 2017 9:57 AM
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News-Argus/SETH COMBS
Vernon Britt inspects the blossoms of strawberry plants on his farm Wednesday. Despite covering the plants, nearly a third of his crop was affected by a return of cold weather.
MOUNT OLIVE -- Vernon Britt was coated in ice, just like the strawberry crop he was trying to protect by using a sprinkler system to insulate the plants with a layer of ice.
"He would have to walk through and beat the sprinklers to get the ice off (the sprinkler heads)," his wife, Jennifer, said. "In other words, Vernon was getting frozen over, too. So when he would get in the house his coat would be a solid sheet of ice. I'd have to help him get out of his coat. I could stand it up on the floor."
The Britts knew the coat would be fine once it thawed. They were less certain about how their five acres of strawberries and 1,100 peach trees would survive three night of sub-freezing temperatures earlier this month.
That uncertainty played out across the county's farming community over those three days especially in light of prior weeks of almost spring-like weather that had crops developing ahead of schedule.
While fruit crops could be the hardest hit, there are concerns as well about the county's wheat crop.
Wayne County Extension Director Kevin Johnson and Extension agent Jessica Strickland were at the Britts' farm Wednesday to get an update on the strawberry crop loss that could reach $60,000.
Earlier in the week, Johnson was checking wheat fields and pulling up samples in order to assess possible damage.
"I didn't find any damage, but that was in the Hood Swamp, Patetown area," he said. "Even that wheat was fairly far along (in development). It's that time of year when it is progressing, and you expect to start seeing some heads in the first of April."
It was a scare, and it did get cold for three nights, but overall the county escaped serious widespread damage, he said.
"The damage is existing in spots, but I think it is going to be minimal," Johnson said. "I still think the wheat crop will be OK. I think there will be some isolated areas where there will be more damage. That would be earlier-planted wheat."
Johnson said he expects to find more of those isolated cases in the southern end of the county where sandy soil warms quicker and promotes plant growth.
That early development makes the crop more vulnerable to damage, he said.
"It could have been worse," Johnson said. "It (freeze) could be happening now. The later the freeze, the worse it is."
Johnson said he does not yet have any crop loss estimates.
"We need to wait and see how the crops recover," he said.
Also, the last freeze of the spring is around April 15, so there are few more weeks to go, Johnson said.
The Britts use an irrigation system to coat the strawberry plants with a protective layer of ice, but it was so cold that the sprayer heads froze, and Britt spent two nights walking through the fields breaking the ice off the sprinklers.
"I'd say we probably lost a third of the crop," Britt said Wednesday morning as he stood between two rows of strawberries at his family's Britt Farms on Manly Grove Church Road. "But hopefully if the weather is permitting, they will set some more blooms and carry us on a little further.
"It was worse than what I thought it would be. It was pretty intense. I think we will have a pretty decent crop. They won't be the real big berries like we normally have. We've lost the big fruit, but little berries are good, too."
Approximately 60,000 plants cover the five acres.
Britt estimates the cold cost the farm about of 20,000 pounds of berries and at $3 per pound that amounts to about $50,000 to $60,000.
"But if you have years like that," he said.
The Britts are picking a few berries now, cleaning up the plants and getting the dead ones off.
Britt said he should be picking some berries next week and that he hopes to be in to be in full swing within two weeks.
As for the peaches, it is little bit too early to tell what the loss could be, but early peaches were mostly lost, he said. The farm will not have any peaches that normally would be ready in May.
Britt expects it will be the first of June before the peaches will be ready.
An irrigation system was used on the peaches, too. The sprinklers were supposed to be frost free, but some still froze up, he said.
Britt said he started pumping water about 9 p.m., and by 3 a.m. the next morning the sprinklers started freezing up.
"It was so cold, and the wind was blowing so hard that the sprinklers would actually freeze," he said. "I had a flashlight as I walked around and used it to beat the ice off the sprinkler heads.
"By the time you would get to the other side of the field, this side was freezing up again. When you'd get across, you'd have to start right back. It was tough. It's not so bad if you have to do it one night and you go a few nights and you don't have to. But when you have to do it every night it gets to be long."
The second night he had to walk through twice to free the sprinkler heads of ice.
"That is a continuous thing because once we start that freezing process it has to continue," Mrs. Britt said. "The berries, once they froze up on that Wednesday morning, they never thawed out until about Friday or Saturday of that week. These leaves probably had an inch of ice on them."
There is something about that freezing process that puts off energy that produces heat that helps to protect the berries, Mrs. Britt said.
The peach trees had 1 1/2 to 2 inches of ice on them and the weight of the ice broke some branches, Mrs. Britt said.
"The good thing about the strawberries is they will rebound somewhat," Mrs. Britt said. "They may keep blooming. It depends on how hot it gets. Strawberries are best when it's hot -- the flavor of your berries, but it is not good for the plants."
Once temperatures hit the 90s, the plants start shedding their blooms, which means fruit is being lost, she said.