Cold-hardy citrus producers are about a month away from harvesting this year’s crop. A lot can happen during that time. What is beyond the grower’s control is what most concerns Lindy Savelle, executive director of the Georgia Citrus Association and co-owner of JoNina Farm in Ochlocknee, Georgia.
“We personally experienced last year a 40-year hailstorm. So that’s always a possibility in late October, November or when we have thunderstorms,” said Savelle at Thursday’s Cold Hardy Citrus Field Day in Quincy, Florida. “You always worry about storms, and it’s still hurricane season until November. You could be threatened by weather when you’re ready for harvest.”
So far this year, the Southeast has dodged tropical storms and hurricanes. This would mark the second straight year that the region misses a major storm if one does not occur during the next two months.
Savelle and fellow producers are also hoping for cooler weather to help color up what is expected to be a bountiful crop. The sooner that happens, the sooner producers can harvest and market their fruit.
“You can’t sell a green orange or a green satsuma. We’re waiting on cold weather to color it up,” Savelle said. “You predict opening day to be Nov. 14, for instance. You probably could open Nov. 7, but you’ve got to build in extra time and make sure the fruit’s good. You don’t want poor fruit out there to make the industry not like Georgia fruit.”
Savelle’s other major concern deals with insect pressure, a problem multiple farms encountered last year.
“You want to watch for mites — last-minute pests that’ll get on the tree, especially red mites. We had a lot of people that had trouble last year with red mites on their navels and grapefruit,” Savelle said. “The consumer is all about the beauty of the outside and less about the inside when they’re looking at it. So, logically, you want to have a pretty piece of fruit as well as a nutritionally dense piece of fruit. You’re thinking about the consumer and how the fruit’s going to look.”
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