Freeze roundup

It wasn't the lack of bees, but an abundance of cold that spelled doom for some fruit and vegetable growers this spring:

Here is some coverage this a.m. about freeze damage


AP: Fruit Growers Wait for frost estimates
First three grafs:
Frigid weekend weather caused frost that damaged crops across the Southeast, raising fears that peach, apple, blueberry, strawberry and wine grapes were harmed.
Cost estimates for the damage were expected later in the week, and Georgia's agriculture commissioner said he might ask for federal aid depending on how badly crops were affected.
"We know there is significant amount of damage through most of state, but it's too early to give what the final analysis will be," said Tommy Irvin, Georgia's agriculture chief.


The Roanoke Times: Caught in the freeze
First three grafs:
Dead, wilted blossoms.
That was what many farmers in the Roanoke area and elsewhere in the mid-Atlantic found Monday as they rummaged through their orchards trying to assess the damage of the weekend freeze on this year's early-blooming crops.
Peaches, cherries and plums were hit particularly hard by the three days of frost, with some farmers already reporting total losses of each crop this year. Some varieties of apples also suffered, as did many grapevines that were already showing shoots -- although many agricultural experts say it's too early to determine the extent of the damages. Forecasters were anticipating another big chill this morning, with temperatures expected to drop as low as the mid-20s.


Rock Hill S.C. Herald Online: Killer freeze wipes out area peaches
First three grafs:

Growing peaches is in the blood and soil of a number of York County farmers, and when a freeze kills the baby fruit, there's nothing to do but pull up your boots and count your losses.
"This is worse than poker," Filbert farmer Ben Smith said of the weekend freeze that dipped to nearly 20 degrees and killed just about every peach in York County. "In poker, you can quit and go home."
Smith, 73, was born on his daddy's peach farm. He lost his crop from 7,500 trees late Saturday, early Sunday morning. Peaches account for about 90 percent of his farm's income.


St. Louis Today.com: Freeze wipes out many growers' crops
First three grafs:
Susie and Otto Thierbach count on the produce from their 46-acre farm near Marthasville in Warren County to provide for themselves and their two preschool-age children.But abnormally cold weather Saturday and Sunday wiped out this year's 10-acre peach crop, their 12-acre apple crop and their blackberry and blueberry plants that were just starting to make berries.
Everything is dead," Otto Thierbach said Monday after he had driven around his farm to survey the damage.



Cullman Times: Peach crops fall victim to weekend freeze
First thre grafs:

It 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.

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West Virginia orchards