http://www.theledger.com/article/20100112/NEWS/1125038/1410?Title=Growers-Hurry-to-Pick-Frost-Damaged-Fruit-for-Juicing
Growers Hurry to Pick Frost Damaged Fruit for Juicing
By Kevin Bouffard
THE LEDGER
Published: Tuesday, January 12, 2010 at 10:54 p.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, January 12, 2010 at 10:54 p.m.
Near the loading area a worker watches trucks dump citrus for extraction at Florida's Natural Tuesday
January 12, 2010 in Lake Wales, Florida. The plant has been running at full capacity seven days a week since the
weather turned colder with freezing temperatures. Normally extracting about 190 loads in a 24 hour period the
plant is now squeezing about 220 a day.
LAKELAND | Florida motorists will share the road with a flood of citrus-hauling trucks over the next few weeks as growers, packinghouses and juice plants struggle to harvest cold-damaged fruit before it drops prematurely.
Many groves in Florida experienced temperatures low enough to freeze fruit Tuesday morning. Like Sunday, colder temperatures were worse on the northern edge of the Florida citrus belt, which runs south of Interstate 4.
Citrus fruit begins to freeze at 28 degrees or lower after four hours.
Growers on Tuesday estimated they lost 10 percent to 20 percent of their unharvested early and mid-season oranges. The citrus harvest began in October, and about 54 percent of the early-mid-season varieties remained on the tree through Sunday, according to the Citrus Administrative Committee in Lakeland, a fresh fruit regulatory agency.
A 10 percent loss of such unharvested fruit would amount to nearly 4 million orange boxes. Orange crops are measured by how many 90-pound boxes they produce.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Tuesday estimated Florida's 2009-10 early-mid oranges at 69 million boxes, but it counted in late December before arctic weather descended on the state.
The next USDA report on Florida citrus, which has an estimated economic impact of $8.9 billion, is scheduled for Feb. 9.
Loss estimates on late-season Valencia oranges, which are not harvested until March, are trickier because the fruit can heal after ice damage. The latest USDA estimate for Valencia oranges is 66 million boxes.
Honey tangerines suffered the biggest loss, as much as 50 percent of a projected 2.3 million crop, said Charles Counter, director of field operations for the Haines City Citrus Growers Association, which operates one of the state's largest fresh citrus packinghouses, particularly for tangerines.
Harvesting honey tangerines did not begin until last week, Counter said. The Citrus Committee estimated nearly 95 percent of them were still on the tree.
That will hurt growers, especially in Polk County, the state's largest producer of tangerines and other specialty citrus, which includes tangleos and other hybrids.
Honey tangerines are more susceptible to cold damage, Counter said.
Only about 12 percent of sunburst and other early tangerine varieties were on the trees by Sunday.
The low temperatures in Lakeland and Bartow dipped to 25 degrees while Winter Haven fell only to 30, said Jennifer Colson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Ruskin.
Lakeland's temperature fell just short of setting a record. The low for the date is 24 degrees, recorded in 1982.
"In Southwest Florida, the temperature got from 25 to 31 in most areas this morning, with mostly not enough duration at 28 or below to cause damage," reported Mongi Zekri, an agriculture extension agent in Hendry County, the state's second largest citrus producer behind Polk.
Growers in Hardee and DeSoto counties, off the Central Florida Ridge, experienced freezing conditions. The FAWN station in Arcadia and Ona reported nearly eight hours below 28 degrees Tuesday morning with lows of 24 and 25 degrees, respectively.
Counter, who manages about 4,300 grove acres in and around Polk, said damage was severe in his low-lying groves, which saw temperatures as low as 23 degrees and stayed below 28 degrees for almost six hours.
In one Valencia orange grove east of Haines City, some fruit froze solid despite freeze protection measures, he said. Damage was lighter in other areas, where the inside of the orange was slushy but not frozen.
Harvesting crews will be working longer hours trying to pick as much of the damaged fruit as possible over the next few weeks, Counter said. Damaged fruit has a greater chance to drop prematurely.
"Usually, if extensive fruit damage has occurred, some (premature drop) would occur within one to two weeks following a freeze," Zekri agreed. "Within one week of a freeze, the extent of leaf damage should be quite apparent as well."
Even the oranges that make it to the juice processing plant will yield less juice because the fruit dries up the longer it hangs on the tree after ice damage, Counter said. That means less money to growers, who are paid based on juice content.
Because of juice loss, damaged oranges, grapefruit and tangerines can't be sold on the fresh market, so more of them will go straight to the juice processor instead of the packinghouse, he said. That also hurts growers economically because they make higher profits on fresh citrus than juice fruit.
Strawberry growers around Plant City battled freezing weather for another long night. Strawberries damage once temperatures fall to freezing, and the Dover FAWN station reported 32 degrees or below for 11 hours Monday night and Tuesday morning.
Conditions are improving. Temperatures this morning were expected to drop below freezing for just one to two hours, Colson said. Bay News 9 said the low temperature for Lakeland was forecast at 32 degrees.
That should be the last of freezing temperatures for at least a few days as the Florida weather will return to normal by Friday, she said. Another cold front could move in next week, but the Weather Service can't say yet whether that will produce freezing weather.
[ Kevin Bouffard can be reached at
kevin.bouffard@theledger.com or at 863-422-6800. ]
About 109 truck loads of oranges and grapfruit wait for extraction on
the yard at Florida's Natural Tuesday January 12, 2010 in Lake Wales,
Florida. The plant has been running at full capacity seven days a week
since the weather turned colder with freezing temperatures. Normally
extracting about 190 loads in a 24 hour period the plant is now squeezing
about 220 a day.
CINDY SKOP | THE LEDGER
After sitting on the yard overnight oranges with frost on them wait to be
extracted at Florida's Natural Tuesday January 12, 2010 in Lake Wales,
Florida. The plant has been running at full capacity seven days a week
since the weather turned colder with freezing temperatures. Normally
extractin about 190 loads in a 24 hour period the plant is now squeezing
about 220 a day.
CINDY SKOP | THE LEDGER 
