Now that we are past the freeze season, farmers are starting to look ahead to the peach crop for this year. Earlier this month I reported that Georgia farmers were expecting about a 10 percent loss due to frost. This week the Southeast Farm Press offered a story on the South Carolina peach crop and how good it looks this year after losing 90 percent of the crop to a March frost last year. You can read that story at https://www.southeastfarmpress.com/fruit/south-carolina-welcomes-bountiful-2018-peach-crop.
Here’s another story that I had not heard about damage to Georgia peaches from Hurricane Irma. Vegetable and Specialty Crop News reported that “the winds caused some small peach trees to blow over entirely. The winds may have whipped the bigger trees around enough that their root systems could have become compromised.” Farmers are now trying to reduce and repair the damage caused by root rot to the trees. You can read that article at https://vscnews.com/post-irma-root-rot-concerns-georgia-peaches/.
