A late March freeze has caused major damage to the earliest-ripening varieties of peaches in some regions of South Carolina, according to the Aiken Standard.
"Our early crop has been devastated, as far as I'm concerned, and I think everybody else around here is in the same boat," said J.W. "Sonny" Yonce III of J.W. Yonce & Sons, which has more than 4,000 acres of peach groves in Aiken, Edgefield, and Saluda Counties. The freeze will cost his business millions of dollars. "There will be very few, if any, peaches until July on the Ridge. There might be a few May peaches around for baskets, and there might be a few June peaches around. But they're going to be expensive, simply because of supply and demand.”
Temperatures fell to 27º on March 26 and 27 in the region, according to the National Weather Service.
"We were surprised that we had so much death,” Yonce said. “We didn't think it got that cold, but, evidently, there was a wind chill factor that surprised us all."
Clingstone peaches were the most affected by the low temperatures, because these trees were in full bloom or else just past full bloom when the freeze occurred.
How will this affect the price of peaches and their market availability? Stay tuned to AndNowUKnow as we continue to follow this story as more details about the scope of the damage become available.
