Peach Growers Concerned About Damage From Winter Weather

The cold weather is taking a toll on many farmers who are worried about their crops.

News On 6's Ashlyn Brothers talked to the folks at an orchard farm in Porter to find out how their peach crop is holding up.

Kent Livesay worries about his orchard all winter long, but says this weeks storm is adding even more concern after a trying year for farmers and ranchers.

"It was a really tough year," said Kent Livesay, Co-owner of Livesay Orchards.

Kent Livesay said first, there was flooding in the spring, followed by a hail storm in May.

"There's always some risk in all of agriculture. I mean, this year we lost most of our peach crop on the 5th of May to a hail storm. It knocked over 90 percent of them on the ground and dented up the rest of them, but that hasn't happened many times over the past 50 years," said Livesay. "You can replant the tomatoes and the okra and the cantaloupes and in fact, we try to have sequential planting but our first planting of all those things was also destroyed in the hail storm."

Then a drought and now a bitter cold snap.

"Makes us appreciate all the good years we've had before this cause this one it seemed like a number of different things went wrong," said Livesay.

He really worries once temperatures dip below zero.

"Of course as we go below zero we get more concerned. Peaches are at their very toughest, it pretty risky if it gets to 10 below zero and of course just not too far north of us growers were reaching that," said Livesay. "Right now you can kind of tell the leaf buds from the fruit buds. I'm cutting the fruit buds open to see if I can see any damage in those which I haven't noticed any."

He doesn't expect this frost to do much damage, but winter is far from over.

"We would want to leave them four to six inches apart on the twigs so that they'll get good size. There's a lot of extra buds here. If we'd lost half of them, it wouldn't hurt anything. In fact, probably on a tree that's really healthy, if 10 percent of them survived you'd have all the peaches you needed," said Livesay. "They're vulnerable at anytime of the season if it gets cold enough. And that temperature will vary throughout the season, but they can be killed when they're completely dormant, and we've had that happen sometimes."

Kent did cover up his blackberries to keep them a bit warmer.

"They're down close to the ground so it's a lot easier to cover up," said Livesay.

Kent said if the conditions are really calm...

"You could use a wind machine or a helicopter sometimes to help protect the crop," said Livesay.

They can help fight the frost during blooming season by using a lot of water.

"It takes a lot more water for frost protection than it does for irregation. Each acre of water would need 80 gallons of water being sprayed on it a minute and it has to be done all the time that it's below the critical temperature. So, if you're not careful you can actually build up ice," said Livesay.

Livesay said until they harvest, there's always a risk.