US (OH): Peach growers hoping for a kinder winter
Joe Burnham IV, part of the family that operates Burnham Orchards, said he and his family were able to get enough peaches to "take care of their needs." The peaches represented similar varieties to what Burnham's grows, but they were "still not the same as good Berlin Heights-grown peaches," the sixth-generation Burnham operator said.
Burnham and other Ohio peach growers are hoping the rest of 2014 and the early part of next year don't bring another Jack Frost that destroys their crops. But Burnham said he wasn't the only peach grower to have to survive without a 2014 peach crop.
Tim Malinich, Erie County's OSU extension educator for agriculture and natural resources, said the buds for the 2015 peach crop sprouted late last summer.
Burnham said typically they bloom by mid-April for that year's crop, so growers will know about mid-April the fate of 2015's peach crop. Right now, all growers can do is wait and hope a polar vortex doesn't infiltrate the state.
Once the temperature dips below zero, the colder it gets, the more buds growers lose, Malinich said.
The temperature at a given time isn't the only factor in determining the quality of peaches, he said. Other considerations include the health of trees and how long it stays frigid. Malinich noted that last winter, there were multiple nights with below-zero temperatures.
Source: norwalkreflector.com
