{"id":2095,"date":"2019-08-05T10:28:17","date_gmt":"2019-08-05T14:28:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/colquittag\/?p=2095"},"modified":"2019-08-05T10:28:17","modified_gmt":"2019-08-05T14:28:17","slug":"georgias-peach-crop-in-good-shape-after-two-down-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/colquittag\/2019\/08\/georgias-peach-crop-in-good-shape-after-two-down-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Georgia’s peach crop in good shape after two down years"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Published on 08\/01\/19<\/div>\n

Georgia’s peach crop in good shape after two down years<\/h1>\n
By\u00a0Clint Thompson\u00a0for\u00a0CAES News<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Georgia peach farmers are feeling \u201cpeachy\u201d about the outlook for this season\u2019s crop, which is expected to more than double last year\u2019s volume, according to Jeff Cook, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Agriculture and Natural Resources agent for Peach and Taylor counties.<\/p>\n

The state\u2019s three biggest peach growers, all located in middle Georgia, are projected to sell more than 2.5 million boxes this year, compared to just 1 million in 2018, Cook said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had a big crop,\u201d he said. \u201cOverall, the quality has been good. The quantity has been really good. Everybody\u2019s really happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among peach farmers feeling content with this year\u2019s crop is Lee Dickey, who experienced a disastrous 2017 harvest.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had probably the worst crop in 30 years in 2017. Last year was fairly challenging as well \u2014 we had about half the normal crop. It was refreshing to get some good volume in this year,\u201d said Dickey, who farms 1,000 acres of peach trees. \u201cI would say overall, it was a pretty good crop.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like Dickey, all Georgia peach growers endured a difficult year in 2017. A mild winter led to an 80% loss of the state\u2019s crop. Cook estimates that approximately 70% of those losses were attributed to a lack of chilling hours.<\/p>\n

Peaches need chill hours with temperatures between 32 and 45 degrees Fahrenheit to mature. The required chill hours depend on the peach variety, but most growers hope to get around 1,000 chill hours.<\/p>\n

Georgia farmers have thrived this year despite unpredictable weather.<\/p>\n

Dickey said a late freeze in the spring damaged some of his early varieties. Peach trees bloom in early to mid-March, so late-season freezes can damage crops.<\/p>\n

This season, temperatures dipped below freezing for a few nights during bloom, but the overall damage was minimal, said Cook, although the late freeze led to some disease issues, like brown rot.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rain and wind and things like that caused some bacterial spot problems that got to be an issue in places and on certain varieties, but for the most part the weather was fine,\u201d Cook said. \u201cIt got a little hot and dry there for about three weeks in June, but once we got past that and started to get a few showers and sun, things got back to normal.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Mother Nature was unpredictable, prices are as expected. This year prices have been holding at 75 cents per pound, a little lower than the 80 to 95 cents farmers got the past two years.<\/p>\n

For more information about Georgia\u2019s peach crop, visit\u00a0site.extension.uga.edu\/peaches<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Clint Thompson is a news editor with the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences based in Tifton.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Published on 08\/01\/19 Georgia’s peach crop in good shape after two down years By\u00a0Clint Thompson\u00a0for\u00a0CAES News Georgia peach farmers are feeling \u201cpeachy\u201d about the outlook for this season\u2019s crop, which is expected to more than double last year\u2019s volume, according to Jeff Cook, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Agriculture and Natural Resources agent for Peach […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":281,"featured_media":2096,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/colquittag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/colquittag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/colquittag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/colquittag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/281"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/colquittag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2095"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/colquittag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2095\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2097,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/colquittag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2095\/revisions\/2097"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/colquittag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/colquittag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/colquittag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/colquittag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}