Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 6, 1995                   TAG: 9504060058
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ANN DONAHUE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

IT'S A SEASON OF WEATHER WORRIES

April showers bring May flowers ... but what if April is dry and cold?

Farmers at Roanoke Valley orchards are hoping that the weather in the next few weeks will be wetter and warmer.

At Ikenberry's Orchard in Botetourt County, where the peach trees are in full bloom, Loretta Ikenberry said the weather has given her some worries about their peach crop.

"The temperature is what makes the difference," Ikenberry said.

The cold weather hasn't caused any damage yet, but night temperatures have been low enough to cause concern. Wednesday morning's low in Roanoke was 32 degrees. If the temperature were to fall to 24, almost the entire crop could be lost.

Glenn Reed of Reed's Orchard on Bent Mountain said his apple trees won't be affected by this week's cold weather. The buds on his trees are in the "half-inch green" stage. At this stage, if the temperature goes down to 23, some crop damage would occur. If the temperature sank to 15, it would kill virtually all his crop.

"We're not to the real easy-kill stage," Reed said.

Frosty nights destroyed the 55-acre apple orchard's entire crop when his father was in charge in 1955 and 1956, Reed said.

Apple growers in the valley have more cause to worry, he said. Apple trees in the lower elevations are almost at their first bloom, and a 25-degree night would kill them.

"Local topography will play a role in this," said Jerry Stenger of the state Climatologist Office in Charlottesville. It is possible for low-lying areas to have substantial damage, while mountain regions, where tree buds are less developed, escape with less, he said.

Both Ikenberry's and Reed's orchards are one to two weeks ahead of schedule in their development as a result of 70-degree weather in March.

Another concern for the growers is the dry spring. The normal rainy season in Western Virginia ends in a month.

"Moisture's not critical yet," Reed said, but he worries that the lack of rain would result in a low water table that will make water use a problem this summer.

However, Reed said that his apple trees are deep-rooted and can survive better than other crops in times of water shortage.

For the six months between October 1994 and March 1995, Roanoke County received below-normal precipitation.

However, the early spring cold weather is not particularily rare.

"It's not unusual to see freezing temperatures this time of year," Stenger said.

"We don't feel safe until the 10th of May," Ikenberry said about the temperamental spring weather.

The normal date for the last freeze in the region is near the end of April, Stenger said. He warned that most farmers usually aren't free from the threat of frost until late May. Reed said he has experienced frost as late as May 28.

Virginia is the sixth-largest producer of apples and the eighth-largest producer of peaches in the United States. Almost 250,000 pounds of apples were produced in the Roanoke Valley in 1993, according to Virginia's Agricultural Statistics Service.