Temperatures that dipped below freezing on Thursday and Friday mornings will not have any noticeable effect on the fruit crops.
That’s the word from Tom Schwartz at the Schwartz Orchards in Centralia and Dix. He says special care was taken to try and protect the strawberry crop, including spreading sugar around the plants to strengthen them.
“Had a little damage on strawberries but not much. We are ok with the damage we got and when you throw it all in it was minimal, but we don’t need any more cold weather. This next time when it gets to be 80 degrees these suckers are going to take off like a racehorse so there won’t be any looking back. You’ll start pushing them hard with fertilizer and we could be picking strawberries in 5 weeks.”
Schwartz says the temperatures that dipped to as low as 27 degrees in the orchards on Friday morning did not cause any damage to the apple and peach trees.
