Damage estimates are becoming clearer from the mid-February freeze that damaged Florida and Georgia blueberries.

Georgia sustained the most significant damage, said Keith Mixon, president of Dole Berry Co. LLC, Watsonville, Calif., and SunnyRidge Farm, Winter Haven, Fla.“We expect the early Georgia crop to be down significantly from last year,” Mixon said Feb. 21. “Right now, it looks pretty desperate. Damage is above 50% but it’s hard to clarify.“Anything that was out there is pretty much gone. It’s a matter of what’s available to bloom now. Anything that was blooming or had berries is completely gone.”He said Florida didn’t sustain damage exceeding 50%.Mixon said growers expect to know more about damage in early March.Mark Greeff, vice president and general manager of the Eastern region for Watsonville, Calif.-based Driscoll Strawberry Associates Inc., said he hadn’t heard of any new estimates but said damage was concentrated on the early Georgia crop.“It seems like it was focused on the southern highbush,” he said Feb. 21. “The word we’re hearing on the (later) rabbit eye crop is that the damage would be minimal.”Bill Braswell president of the Florida Blueberry Growers Association and president of Polkdale Farms, Auburndale, Fla., said Florida sustained moderate damage.“It appears almost all of the damage was north of I-4 getting progressively worse as you move north,” he said in a late February statement. “The dew points were very low on the night of Feb. 11 and the winds were so strong that many farmers did not have the water capacity to provide adequate protection. Given the fact that the crop was advanced due to the very warm winter conditions, fruit had been set for several weeks. At this time, it appears that approximately 20% of this seasons Florida blueberry crop was lost.”Braswell said growers don’t expect Florida to produce large volumes this spring when the state usually opens domestic production in late March. South and central Florida usually finish in early May with north Florida production ending in mid-May before Georgia’s early crop typically starts in late April and finishes in late May.

Source - http://www.thegrower.com/