COBDEN (WSIL) -- The trees are blooming in the warm weather and sunshine, but local orchards are keeping a close eye on the weather.
Fields of pink blossoms are beginning to pop up around the region, signaling the beginning of the peach growing season.
"Peach trees are really pretty close to full bloom. We're a couple weeks later than last year which is a good thing," says Parker Flamm, Manager of Flamm Orchards.
But with multiple mornings of below freezing temperatures expected, Parker says they're concerned about crop damage.
"At this point anything much below 30 degrees is going to have me nervous. We can probably take a little lower than that but we'd like to stay away from those temperatures," explains Parker.
Austin Flamm, Manager of the Orchard, says a prolonged period of the cold could kill the blooms.
"We can actually open up a flower and follow the pistol all the way down to the inside of that bud and find the peach itself. We'll be able to tell within a day or two after this cold front comes through, whether or not our peaches have survived it by opening up the flowers and looking at the peach itself," elaborates Austin.
While there's not much they can do to protect the peach trees, Parker says they're working hard to shield their strawberries.
"We've got about 10 acres of strawberries. Those are on a small enough scale that we can do a few preventative measures. We'll have them all covered and be running sprinkler irrigation in order to put a thin sheet of ice over the covers. That keeps the flowers warmer on the strawberries, from the ground radiated heat," adds Austin.
Locally the average last freeze ahead of growing season occurs the first week of April.
"It's stressful. You never know what she's going to throw at yah. Some years it's good but you just deal with her and pray and keep on going," says Austin.
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