LEBANON, Tenn. (WKRN) — The warmer temperatures last month caused many fruit trees to bloom early, and that left the future crops vulnerable to Sunday night’s readings that fell into the teens.
Jack Pratt of Pratt’s Orchard in Wilson County explained how this affected his peach trees by picking off one of the former blossoms and breaking it open to show the miniature fruit:
“Chances are, I think that 16 degrees probably got it,” Pratt said. “We won’t know for sure until later, but just looking at it, it doesn’t look good.”
“We’ve got a chart that gives us on there, they call it ‘post-bloom’. That means after it’s bloomed,” he continued. “If it gets down to 25 degrees, it will get 90% of the peach crop.”
Pratt tried to prevent his crop from freezing Sunday night but to no avail.
“I tried to build the fires on the northwest side, so the heat would go across the orchard,” he said. ”But the smoke just raised straight up. The wind wasn’t even blowing.”
News 2 also talked to Breedens Orchard in Mt. Juliet, and they feel that their fruit crops have suffered the same fate.