Strawberry farmers are getting a better idea of losses now that frost damage is appearing days later.
Florida’s Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson estimated the state saw more than $1 billion worth of crop damage from the wintry weather.
“I think it’s kind of the consensus that this was the worst winter storm since 2010,” said Clay Keel, president of Keel Farms.
Following the forecast, farmers across the area were up all night flooding plants to save them. Keel said the winter storm had the worst conditions for the berries.
“For us especially, the challenge was the wind,” Keel said. “Saturday night, we had 15-mph winds all night long and temperatures down to like 23 degrees here.”
Because of that, several of the blooms previously slated to become strawberries have turned black and died. Keel said they’ll pick less as the weeks go by.
He said all that decay presents a new challenge for farmers: plant-killing fungus.
“They’re always vulnerable to it, but it’s just that added stress between the winter damage, the cold damage, and then if you have other pressures, you kind of get that multiply effect,” Keel said.
He said luckily, warm and dry days are in the forecast, which will help them out. As for their farm, which also specializes in blueberries, those berries were still young enough to come out of the frost unscathed.
“Until the petals fall off of the flower, they can really tolerate very low temperatures into the low 20s, and once that petal falls off then they become more like the strawberries where they’re more vulnerable at 29-30 degrees,” Keel said.
Blueberry season picks up just as the strawberry season ends in April and runs until the summer.