Weekly Field Update
Clemson Extension agents provide updates in The South Carolina Grower this week about the status of various crops being produced throughout the state.
Midlands
Sarah Scott reports, “Temperatures dropped below freezing along the Ridge two mornings last week. We’ve been checking peaches over the past few days to assess the damage. Right now, it seems a lot of early varieties will be hit pretty hard. Just from what I’ve checked, if there were still blooms present, there was some protection from the cold, but if there was no petal or shuck present, the fruit was very vulnerable and suffered damage. It will still take some time to know the extent of damage to the peach crop, but it is safe to say we did receive damage. We still have below-freezing temperatures in the forecast, so we will just have to wait a bit to really know the crop outlook. Strawberries were covered for the cold mornings last week. These crops look good after removing the covers. It’s important to maintain a good spray schedule and sanitation as best you can in between covering and uncovering.”
Pee Dee
Bruce McLean reports, “(Earlier this week looked) like it was going to be another frosty one for much of the state. Just like last week,(the) freezing temps are going to be accompanied by calm wind conditions. These are the perfect conditions to do frost/freeze protection (overhead water for blueberries and strawberries, row covers on strawberries, wind machines for peaches, nectarines, etc.). The forecast looks to be in a warming trend for the foreseeable future. Keep your fingers crossed that this will be our last chance of frost. It looks like we somewhat escaped cold injury from last week’s cold temperatures. Blueberries and peaches seem like they got the worst of it due to being so far along in flowering and fruiting. Orchards that had frost protection seemed to escape most injury. Orchards that did not have frost protection were hit hard. Same with strawberries. Berries that had some means of frost protection (row covers or overhead water) had little to no damage. Years with freezes like we have had are the years where frost protection pays for itself.”
Upstate
Andy Rollins reports, “We had damage to our peach crop last week and possibly again this morning (3/20) on some farms. Some growers have peaches, but it is still too early to know the full extent. The strawberry crop suffered very little damage, although some damage is evident. Three growers have had to run water and use overhead protection. The freezes have also damaged the blueberry crop. They seem to be worse than muscadine and blackberry which have suffered little damage overall.”