Sat Nov 21 2009
TOLEDO (AP) -- There's nothing fuzzy about it: Ohio is in for a much smaller peach crop this summer because of an extreme cold snap in January and a cool spring.
The state's growers are expected to produce 2,340 tons of peaches, down 65 percent from last year, said Richard Snead, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's farming statistician in Ohio.
"The buds didn't even show up on many trees," Snead said. "There are places that did OK, but most of those are down along the Ohio River."
Growing peaches in Ohio isn't easy because temperatures at 10 below or lower mean sterile blossoms in the spring.
Some fruit growers this year say their peach trees took a big hit when temperatures dipped to 15 degrees below zero on two days in January, while others were done in when spring cold spells along Lake Erie put a chill on the crop.
Only a handful of peaches survived on the trees at Eshleman Fruit Farm in Clyde, which is about 40 miles southeast of Toledo.
"We tell everybody we don't have any," said owner Betty Eshleman.
The rest of the farm's fruit looks good, including apples.
"Everybody should have a really good apple crop," she said.
"Since we don't have to thin the peaches, we've been able to pay more attention to the apples."
Robert Schraidt in northwest Ohio's Ottawa County said his roadside stand in Catawba is not open much this summer because he doesn't have the product. He says he has sold only about 20 bushels of peaches, compared with 75 bushels by this time in a usual year.
"There are no peaches in northwest Ohio. There are none," said Martha Mora of Johnston Fruit Farms near Swanton.
It's the same in central and southwest Ohio.
"No one has peaches," said John Peifer, owner of Peifer Orchards in Yellow Springs near Dayton.
He lost three acres of peaches after the January freeze.
"We haven't had a full crop in four years," he said. "That's why we only grow three acres."
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