NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY, Pa. — Bobby and Sara Hricko walked through the apple and peach trees at Green's Fruit Farm near Elysburg, looking for damage.
They manage the 90-acre farm, which specializes in apples. The Hrickos say one of the worst things for their crops is a late spring freeze, which is exactly what happened last night.
"The early apples, we're seeing damage. The later fall apples we're not concerned about," Sara Hricko said.
The farm sees a lot of crop damage when the temperature dips below 26 degrees.
"The coldest time of the morning is usually 5, 5:30. At 6:30, we had 28 degrees, and since we are seeing damage, we probably were down lower than 28," Bobby Hricko said.
So far, the freeze only affected a small portion of the crops, but the couple says they are not out of the woods yet.
"Damage would have happened last night, and it takes a few days to really see what you have. Even though we're seeing some damage now, we won't know exactly how much for a little while," Sara said.
It was a similar situation last May when a deep freeze killed many of the farm's peaches. Bobby says they are at the mercy of Mother Nature.
"Some orchards hire helicopters. They have wind machines or propane torches, but none of that would work in the high winds that we experienced last night."
The Hrickos say they will still salvage a decent crop, but they hope we are finished with freezing temperatures for this season.
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