New Jersey farmers are nervous about how much damage may result from freezing temperatures overnight on April 5, 2016.
FRANKLIN TWP. -- Temperatures dipped to 23 degrees Monday night at the Snyder Research Farm, said Rutgers Professor Emeritus Win Cowgill, leading to fears that the cold will damage this year's fruit tree crops around the state.
"It's too early to tell the damage yet," he said, referring to orchard fruits in blossom. "It takes at last 12 hours to tell anything."
Temperatures Monday night dropped to 20 or 21 degrees in the Hackettstown and Randolph areas, he said. A warm winter caused many fruit trees to blossom early before the risk of killing frosts subsided.
It's a tricky thing, though, determining crop damage from the April freeze. "It depends on the stage of the fruit," he said. "It depends on where the fruit is maturity-wise, and the specific temperature."
Michigan State University's Extension service publishes a chart of critical temperatures for different fruits, spelling out 90-percent kill rates and 10-percent kill rates for various stages of buds.
N.J.'s trees and plants confused
Farmers aren't out of the woods yet, he said. "Tonight's the night that has people really nervous," he said Tuesday afternoon. And it's region-wide. "The Hudson Valley in New York already lost all their peaches; now they're worried about their apples."
Temperatures could drop to 16 to 20 degrees Tuesday night, he said. "It gets down to 16 and you're going to lose all your peaches," he said.
Cowgill served as Hunterdon's agricultural agent until his retirement last week. He's still on the job, though. "After 38 years, I'm not leaving my guys hanging when they need me," he said Tuesday.
Diversification is the key to farming in this area, he said. "All my growers know you don't count on any one crop anymore."
Complicating things this year is the crazy weather pattern we've seen this spring. "We're three to four weeks early on bloom," Cowgill said. "We had that extremely warm weather in February and March.
"Our frost-free date in New Jersey is May 15," he said. "It's only April 5."
Sallie Graziano may be reached at sgraziano@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @SallieGraziano. Find The Hunterdon County Democrat on Facebook.