The weekend's freezing weather appears to have destroyed this year's apple harvest in Henderson County, one of the largest apple-growing counties in the Southeast.

Experts said growers throughout the mountain county reported a dire outlook for this year's harvest after temperatures dropped into the teens on Friday and Saturday nights. One local grower said it's the worst damage in more than 50 years, and he would be surprised if any of his crop survives.

"I just can't believe there is anything that will come through with it being so cold for three nights," said Joseph Stepp, owner of Stepp Orchard in Edneyville.

Growers in Henderson County account for more than 85 percent of the apples grown in North Carolina, which ranks seventh nationally, said Marvin Owings Jr., a fruit tree specialist with the Cooperative Extension Service.

Last year, apple growers in the county produced just shy of a full crop with 3.3 million bushels, generating more than $22.8 million in gross returns, Owings said. The extent of the damage to this year's crops isn't yet known, but Owings called the weekend freeze "devastating."

"Even late bloomers like Rome apples are looking bad," he said. "I don't want to make any solid predictions until the end of the week when we can get out into the orchards."

Adam Pryor, a Henderson County farmer and president of the Blue Ridge Apple Growers Association, owns Hilltop Farm with his father, Gary. Adam Pryor said they don't expect to be picking apples in late summer or fall. "What I can see in my orchards, this looks like a good chance at a total loss," he said. "My dad has been doing this for 40 years and said this is the worst he has ever seen."

The Easter weekend freeze followed a stretch of warm weather, which also contributed to the problem, Owings said. "We are two weeks ahead of schedule for bloom," Owings said. "Typically full bloom is around April 15. If the trees were in their normal state, we would be looking at green tips and they can usually sustain at lower temperatures." Combined, the extreme weather patterns could impact the overall health of apple trees for years to come, Adam Pryor said.

"If you lose trees, it can take up to 10 years to grow trees to full apple producing levels," he said. "This will be a big loss for farmers in our area, but will also create a loss in county tourism, income and other aspects, too." Further east, strawberry and peach farmers reported narrowly escaping widespread losses where temperatures dipped to a record-setting 21 degrees early Sunday.

Doug Carrigan estimated that he lost up to 25 percent of his 100,000 strawberry plants near Mooresville. It could have been worse, he said, had he and his workers not irrigated the plants Friday and Saturday nights, which helped maintain the temperature around the fruit at the freezing mark.

Kevin Huffman, who owns Huffman's Peaches and Produce in Iredell County, said his roughly 1,100 peach trees bloomed early this season and already were growing small peaches before the weekend freeze. "I think it's going to be all right," he said, adding that he'll have a better idea later this week.

Source: wral.com

Isnet ( China ), Inc.
Copyright © 2000