The second major freeze event of the season occurred this week in the cold-hardy citrus region. It is still too early to gauge the long-term impact of temperatures dropping to the mid-20s in the early morning hours on Monday and Tuesday. However, if growers did not implement freeze-protection measures, this event could be more serious than the first freeze that took place the second week of November.
“Most folks are just now getting out to start scouting to see if they’ve had any damage,” says Mary Sutton, University of Georgia (UGA) assistant professor and citrus Extension specialist. “From what little I’ve heard, it sounds like everybody was using their freeze protection like they should, so I’m hoping we won’t see too much freeze injury. But it’s definitely too early to tell.”
Sutton says two days of back-to-back freezing temperatures increases the chances of injury to citrus trees.
“We’re mainly looking at the total hours below the most critical temperature,” she explains. “So, if we have five hours below 26 degrees, it’s a lot more damaging than one hour below 26. There’s more opportunity for injury.”
Sutton is optimistic that most growers will have implemented their freeze protection because this freeze was a more serious threat than the one in November. Citrus producers in North Florida, South Georgia and South Alabama are in the midst of harvesting this year’s crop. While trees are at risk for damage once temperatures drop below freezing, their susceptibility was amplified this week because of how much below freezing the temperatures dropped.
“A lot of the literature for citrus says that around 28 degrees is critical. That’s when you really start seeing a lot of damage,” says Sutton. “But it’s hard to put an exact number on it, because we don’t know how the trees have acclimated and how the crop load will affect things. There are so many other factors, so we try to err on the side of caution with everything.”
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