Chill hours coming up short for Middle Georgia peach growers

Although the past few days have been cold, it likely won't be enough for Middle Georgia's peach crop.

Feb. 15 is the traditional cutoff date for chill hours, which are the hours that temperatures fall below 45 degrees while peach trees are dormant.

Ideally, growers like to have about 1,000 hours. But based on weather forecasts, this season's chill hour tally is looking to be about 750 hours or a little less. That will be enough for some varieties, but not others. It could have been worse had it not been for the past week being consistently cold.

Jeff Cook, county agent for Peach and Taylor counties, said measuring the impact of low chill hours is not an exact science. But based on what he is seeing, his best guess is that the overall crop value could be reduced 25 percent this year.

That will make the fourth consecutive year the Middle Georgia peach crop has been impacted either by low chill hours or a late freeze.

Duke Lane Jr., president of Lane Southern Orchards, isn't ready to concede that there will be a loss. For one thing, he isn't so sure that chill hours after Feb. 15 might not help.

He said he also has seen years of low chill hours that didn't affect the crop as much as expected.

"You really don't know what you've got until you see it on the tree," he said.

But Lane and other growers are considering taking a step that hasn't been done much in this area. Alabama growers, as well as growers in South America, have long used a spray called Dormex that chemically helps make up those hours. It has been used little in this area mostly because it hasn't been needed. Late freezes historically had been a much greater concern for growers than chill hours.

But with a loss three years ago due to low chill hours, growers are considering giving Dormex a try. Lane said Southern Orchards has used it only sporadically in the past, but he expects in the next week or two that his farm may spray it on all of his trees requiring 850 chill hours or more.

Harris Sledge, a small grower who operates a 100-acre peach orchard near Fort Valley, said he plans to spray Dormex as well. He also hasn't used it much before and isn't sure it will do any good. But he's willing to take the chance.

"I've had a bad year two years in a row," he said. "I can't stand a third one."

Without taking that step, Sledge said he isn't expecting much out of trees that need 850 chill hours or more. That's about half his crop.

Last year his crop was almost a total loss due to the a late freeze. Overall, peach growers across the midstate lost about a third or more of the crop from that late mercury dip.

If a late freeze doesn't kill a peach, it will be fine. But low chill hours impact quality, leaving peaches small and malformed. Some may be marketable, but others may not be.

Local growers have moved away from trees that require 1,000 chill hours or more. The reason growers don't just go entirely with low chill hour trees, Cook said, is that those trees bloom early. That means a higher risk of blooms getting killed by a late freeze.

Also growers need trees with varying chill hours because the trees bloom at different times. That allows for harvesting throughout the season.

The peach crop has a significant economic impact because it employs hundreds of migrant workers who won't be around at all to spend money if the crop is bad. In Peach County at least, businesses such as grocery stores and restaurants will see losses from a bad peach crop.

This story was originally published February 14, 2016 at 9:30 PM with the headline "Chill hours coming up short for Middle Georgia peach growers ."