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

DATE: FRIDAY, April 7, 1995                   TAG: 9504080033
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B4   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: STEPHENS CITY                                 LENGTH: Short

ORCHARDS THREATENED BY OVERNIGHT FROST

An overnight frost, with temperatures predicted to drop into the teens, threatened to severely damage Virginia's peach and apple orchards, agriculture officials said Wednesday.

Virginia has about 23,000 acres of apple trees and 2,300 acres of peach trees, nearly half of them in Frederick and Clarke counties.

If temperatures dip as low as 16 to 19 degrees, about 75 percent of the potential peach crop could be ruined, said Gary DeOms of Virginia Tech's agriculture research center in Frederick County.

The peach trees are more vulnerable to the cold temperatures than apple trees now because buds are opening and will not bear fruit if they freeze, he said. Apple trees are a few weeks away from blooming, although some varieties progress sooner.

``A few blooms on peach trees are open and many are right ready to pop,'' said John Marker, a peach grower in Frederick County.

Few Virginia growers use smudge pots or heaters with fans to warm their orchards, DeOms and Marker said. They only raise the temperature a few degrees and would have little impact on a hard freeze, they said.

- Associated Press

by CNB