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Blankets Of Ice Coat Berries

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By GEORGE H. NEWMAN

gnewman@tampatrib.com

Published: January 28, 2009

PLANT CITY - Area strawberry fields were hit with the coldest temperatures of the season last week, but growers used sprinklers to limit damage to berries and blooms.

Florida Strawberry Growers Association executive director Ted Campbell said the worst of the cold hit last Wednesday and Thursday, when temperatures dropped below freezing for eight to 10 hours in some fields. Farmers were still assessing damage, but he expected enough blooms and young berries survived that fruit will be available in the next few weeks.

Carl Grooms, owner of Fancy Farms off County Line Road in southeastern Plant City, said the second night was much worse.

"The temperature reached 32 degrees here at 9 p.m. Wednesday Jan. 21 night," Grooms said. "It got down to about 24 or 25 degrees between 4 and 5 in the morning Jan. 22. It stayed below freezing until 9 a.m., when we shut down the sprinkler system."

Growers use rotating sprinklers in freezing weather to place a thin coating of ice on the strawberry plants. The constantly regenerated ice crystals help protect the fruit and new blossoms.

"We will pick berries off a plant about 30 to 35 times from December through March," Grooms said. "The plant itself is an evergreen and won't freeze at those temperatures. But the blossoms and very young fruit we protected last night will be ready to pick around Valentine's Day. We'll have to wait and see how much damage was done."

Most of the nation's winter strawberries are grown in the Plant City area in a season that lasts from about Thanksgiving through Easter.

Reporter George H. Newman can be reached at (813) 865-4451.

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