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Peach crops fall victim to weekend freeze
By Evan BelangerRelated Photos
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Peach grower Doug Spradlin reaches for a dead peach bud Monday afternoon at his orchard in West Point. Spradlin, like many peach growers across the state, lost his crop to the recent cold weather. Amanda Shavers-Davis
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Add a comment on this storyIt was the cold that killed the peaches, but unseasonably warm weather was the real culprit, according to local farmer Doug Spradlin.
Spradlin lost 100 percent of his peach crop over the weekend — 2,500 trees in all. He also lost most of his vegetable, blueberry, blackberry and apple crops as a result of subfreezing temperatures Friday and Saturday night.
Across the county, temperatures dipped into the mid to low 20s Saturday, killing just about everything that was planted early or budding early as a result of unseasonably warm weather through most of March.
“We were going to have one of the best peach crops in years, but I haven’t found a live peach yet,” Spradlin said Monday, pinching open a peach bud to show its brown, rotted center, which should have appeared green.
While the berries could recover somewhat, and Spradlin is replanting most of his vegetables, the crop loss could delay the opening of his roadside produce market in the West Point area.
The shop, which also sells homemade ice cream, normally opens in the last week of May, but could open weeks later this year as a result of crop damage, according to Spradlin’s wife Sue.
Spradlin said he will attempt to buy peaches to sell in his shop this year, but after hearing reports of failing peach crops in other counties, he said he doubted he would be able to find any.
He spent most of his day Monday tilling over frozen stalks of sweet corn and inspecting about 2,500 tomato plants, which he covered before the freeze set in — many of those will still have to be replaced.
“I wish I hadn’t planted them this early,” Spradlin said.
Spradlin and his wife will be able to claim the lost peach crop to their insurance company this year, but according to Sue, the pay out will only be about 50 percent of what they would have made otherwise.
“That will just about cover my expenses,” Spradlin said. “I’ve already sprayed them three times.”
The rest of their crops are not insured.
Across the state, farmers were scrambling late last week in search of anything to keep their crops from freezing in cold weather.
On Thursday, the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries reported it would use water-spraying helicopters to help protect the budding peach crops, but the plan was called off Friday, when forecasters said the weather would not be as severe as originally predicted.
According to the Associated Press Monday, farmers in Blount County reported crop losses of 100 percent. Farmers in Chilton County, the state’s largest peach producer, reported 80 percent crop losses.
Decatur was the coldest place in the state Saturday night with a sustained low of 23 degrees for much of the night.
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