Tuesday, April 26, 2016
By KALEA HALL
khall@vindy.com
YOUNGSTOWN
Peace Valley
Orchards farmer Dan Simmons expected his apple orchard – his livelihood – to be wiped out a few weeks back.
His apple trees had green showing, and when the green shows and the temperature drops below 20 degrees, you expect a loss, Simmons said.
“I can’t find one or two dead apple blossoms,” he said. “I didn’t think we would have anything.”
The shocked Simmons was happy to report he sees no impact – at this point – to his fruit crop at his Rogers farm.
“My dad is 87 years old and he has been doing this his entire life. And he said, ‘That is the screwiest thing I have ever seen,’” Simmons said. “This is new territory.”
The concern came on the weekend of April 9 when the Mahoning Valley saw some snowfall. Temperatures that weekend were in the teens. The lowest temperature was recorded during the morning of April 10 when it was 15 degrees at the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport, said Eric Wilhelm, chief meteorologist at The Vindicator’s broadcast partner, 21 WFMJ-TV.
When a green bud on an apple tree is exposed to a temperature of 18 degrees or lower for 30 minutes, 10 percent of the buds will die. Ninety percent of the buds will die if exposed to 10 degrees or lower for at least 30 minutes.
As the buds get greener and then bloom, the temperature at which they will be affected increases.
Simmons believes the gradual temperature decline allowed for his 210 acres of apples to prepare for the lowest temperature.
Area farmers also are looking out for their peach crops.
Eric Barrett, Ohio State University extension educator for agriculture and natural resources in Mahoning County, said the peach crop – depending on the location in the Mahoning Valley – was in the pink stage to full bloom when the temperature dropped. At 21 degrees, the full-bloom crop will have a 90 percent bud kill. At 26 degrees, there’s 10 percent bud kill expected.
“We definitely saw some peach buds that were killed, but we think we got at least half of [the crop],” Barrett said.
The peach crop is thinned down a lot anyway.
“We pick off the blossoms to get the nice-sized peaches,” Barrett said.
Simmons’ peach crop is fine.
White House Fruit Farms in Canfield saw minimal effects.
“Mother Nature has a way of making most things come out OK,” said Debbie Pifer, owner of White House. “The peach crop isn’t full, but it is an excellent crop. There will be homegrown peaches this year.”
In 2014, the Mahoning Valley was peachless after a brutal winter with below-zero temperatures. Thankfully, that’s not the case this year.
Most strawberry farmers covered their crop to protect it from the low temperatures this month.
No matter what kind of winter the area has, every spring brings a temperature drop and sleepless nights for farmers over concern for their fruit crops.
“The end of May is the last hurdle for weather,” Simmons said.
The average date of the last freeze in the Valley is typically during the first week of May.
“There’s no chance of any frost or freeze in the next seven to eight days,” Wilhelm said Monday.