Weekend freezing temperatures damage some berry crops

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Spring is less than a week away, but winter-like temperatures surged into the Cape Fear over the weekend.

A strong cold front was responsible for the frigid weather as lows dipped into the middle 20s Sunday morning.

The cold air caused damage to local berry crops, with some faring better than others.

“Strawberries will be just pushed back a few days. Other than that, they’ll be fine,” Lewis Farms owner Cal Lewis said. “Blueberries don’t come back. They don’t regenerate blossoms or fruits.”

Lewis says they have protective plans in place to deal with late season arctic blasts, but say other factors made this time more of an issue than usual.

“Makes it a difficult challenge to get full coverage when the wind is blowing,” Lewis said. “So, hence, we lost a lot.”

Pender County Cooperative Extension Director Mark Seitz says most farmers have lots of experience with how to deal with protecting sensitive fruit such as freezing water around the plants to insulate them.

But Seitz says they can only handle so much of that.

“Blossoms get saturated, they get waterlogged,” Seitz said. “And then as that fruit forms, it’s just mush.”

Although freezing weather is never good for crops, Seitz says he’s thankful this didn’t happen a few weeks from now.

“Strawberries are in production [then],” Seitz said. “So potential damage to the crop is a lot more severe as we go later in the spring.”

Despite the slight damage to their berries, Lewis Farms says they plan to start selling strawberries at their Gordon Road location next Friday as originally planned.