US (NC): Apple farmers dodge a bullet with cold temps, so far
That was April 11, 2012, which was followed by another hard freeze the next day. The hard freeze devastated the county's $31 million apple crop that year. Roughly 76 percent of the crop failed, producing the worst apple yields since 2007.
Fast-forward to this week, when temperatures again dropped to what agricultural experts say is a “critical” level in terms of potential damage to blooming apple trees: around 27 degrees. This time, though, it appears Mother Nature spared local orchards from heavy damage, farmers and extension agents said.
The difference, they said, is that apple trees in 2012 bloomed early due to the warmer-than-normal weather that preceded the cold blast. However, they warn that this year's apple crop is not out of the woods yet, with potential for more hard freezes or frost until the end of May.
According to Steve McArtney, an apple researcher at N.C. State's Mountain Horticultural Crops Research & Extension Center in Mills River, temperatures in the mid-20s have the potential to kill 90 percent of fully bloomed apple flowers.
On Wednesday, McArtney's data loggers recorded temperatures as low as 27 degrees in Staton's orchard, enough theoretically to kill 10 percent of the fullest blossoms. But a lot depends on how acclimated to wind and cold the trees have gotten, he added, and how long temperatures stay that low.
Since it only takes about 10 percent survival of potential blooms to make a full crop, McArtney said losing 10 percent is “not a big problem.”
Apple farmer Kenny Barnwell said Thursday morning's short-lived frost wasn't “the kind that tend to take a whole crop of fruit.” He estimated that two nights of temperatures in the 20s damaged “pockets” of apples throughout Henderson County, but nothing compared to 2012's crippling losses.
“Right now, my guess is we've got 60-80 percent of a crop in Henderson County,” Barnwell said. “They'll be some growers that will suffer a little worse than others, but short of having another (freeze) event or Noah starts building another ark like last summer, we'll be all right.”
Source: blueridgenow.com
