Georgia’s citrus growers may have dodged catastrophic results from Hurricane Helene, but they might not know the full impact of the storm for at least a couple of more weeks.
Lindy Savelle, executive director of the Georgia Citrus Association, warned that though fruit may still be in the trees, it may have suffered irreparable damage from high winds when the storm moved through the region on Sept. 26 and 27.
“We learned this with Hurricane Michael. This fruit is about a month from harvest. It’s still not ripe. It will hold onto the tree very well. The closer it gets to ripe, the easier it would be for the wind to pull it off,” Savelle said. “We might think we have an okay crop, but what happens is that wind can rattle that fruit on the tree so much so it’s as if you were taking an orange and rolling it between your hands to soften it up.
“It’s very viable for juice but it’s not very viable for the fresh market. That’s a concern. You can’t tell it from the outside. The only way you’re going to know that is to cut it open and see if it’s mushy on the inside.”
The timing of Helene was different compared to Hurricane Michael. Michael moved through the region in mid-October in 2018, a couple of weeks away from harvest. Producers were still a month away from this year’s harvest when Helene made landfall, so the crop wasn’t as susceptible to the wind speeds as it was six years ago.
“The closer this fruit becomes to maturity, the more it begins to loosen from the peeling on the inside,” explained Savelle. “You essentially have the peeling and the fruit inside when the fruit becomes mature. Right now, it’s still attached to the peeling and that’s a good thing,” Savelle said. “We need to watch that fruit. Just because it’s still hanging on the tree doesn’t mean you’ve got a viable piece of fruit for fresh fruit sale.”
Growers should cut a piece of fruit open in about a week and see what the inside looks like, she advised.
Share this Post
About the Author
Sponsored Content