Late Freeze Severely Damages State’s Peach Crop

	Auburn, April 25, 2003 --- Growers across the state are still assessing just how much 
damage the late March freeze did in their orchards.  A fruit horticulturist with the Alabama 
Cooperative Extension System says it’s tough to be very optimistic.
	“I want to be hopeful about the damage’s extent,” says Bobby Boozer, Extension 
horticulturist at the Chilton Regional Research and Extension Center.  “But it looks like the March 
31 freeze event may have taken as much as 70 percent of the peach crop.”
	Boozer says several factors compounded the severity of the freeze event.  Most peach 
trees in Chilton County, home to the majority of the state’s peach orchards, were past the bloom 
stage.  Peaches are more vulnerable to cold at this time because of increased growth activity.
	Boozer says varieties that had not completed bloom were badly damaged as well.  Buds 
on these trees had lost much of their cold hardiness, thanks to the week of near 80-degree 
weather just prior to the freeze.
	He worries 2003 could approach the 1996 season.  Several March freezes severely 
damaged the state’s entire peach crop that year.
	According to the Alabama Agricultural Statistics Service, about 500,000 pounds of 
peaches were harvested, grossing just over $250,000.  Now compare that to a good year like 
2001.  Two years ago, growers harvested more than 22 million pounds of fruit, generating more 
than $9 million.