Local farmers search for answers after loss of blueberry plants
Before this weekend’s freeze, Cameron Phillips’ fields in Lexington were “white with vibrant flowers.” Following the freeze, the field was covered in brown, frost-burnt blueberry bushes.
Saturday night and into early Sunday, temperatures plummeted to 26 degrees, low enough to kill blueberry flowers. Some farmers in Oglethorpe County said they experienced severe crop losses.
Phillips’ farm, Buffalo Creek Berry Farm, experienced at least a 70% crop loss, he said, which could cost the operation anywhere from $40,000-$60,000 this year.
“It’s a little disheartening,” Phillips said.
Chris Luther, co-owner of Rhonda’s Blueberries, said he experienced the same as Phillips. It was a total crop loss for his farm in southern Oglethorpe County, despite covering his plants with frost cloth.
“Blueberries are the main crop that the Extension is looking into following the freeze,” said Shanna Reynolds, agricultural and natural resources agent with the Oglethorpe County University of Georgia Extension Office. “Not sure what the impact is, but it looks like blueberries may have the most damage.”
Luther said the culprit was warm February temperatures — the flowers bloomed early this year, so the March frost killed the flowers. If the plants hadn’t bloomed, they may have survived the cold.
It looked like there were going to be more blueberries than ever before, Luther said. However, he said he has to now look at “plan B,” which is construction work and selling propagated blueberry plants at the Athens Farmers Market.
This freeze follows a freeze event last April, when both Luther and Phillips lost nearly their entire blueberry crops. Phillips said he picked only 20 one-gallon buckets of blueberries last year. Usually, the farm yields 1,200 buckets.
Buffalo Creek also lost about half of its strawberries, but Phillips said he covered them with frost cloth. He’s hoping his other crops will pull through, provided there’s not another freeze.
“We’re still hopeful that our blackberries and mulberries and our strawberries will spread out some new flowers,” Phillips said. “So we’re still hopeful that we’ll do OK.”