The Peach State will have less of its signature fruit to provide the U.S. this summer as Georgia is grappling with a peach crop shortage due to warmer winter months.
Georgia lost over 90% of its peach crops due to the record-setting warm weather in traditionally colder months, leaving the crops to suffer, according to CNN.
While Georgia typically produces over 130 million pounds of peaches a year, the state’s crops are struggling after not having enough days that were cold enough for the fruit. Record warmer temperatures occurred in the state, with the warmest temperatures in Georgia’s history being recorded in the January through March period according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
February was also record-setting, being one of the warmest on record for the state, said Pam Knox, an agricultural climatologist with the University of Georgia extension.
The temperature of their environment is important for peaches because they bloom based on the number of hours of cooler temperatures the trees experience while dormant, Knox said. Typically, chill hours are based on hours spent in temperatures below 45 degrees Fahrenheit.
Cold weather around Christmas time in 2022 gave many of the peach tree varieties enough of the signal they needed to start blooming when the warm temperatures arrived, Knox said. So, when the heat arrived in February, the trees bloomed, some almost a month early, and some even began to put out their new fruit.
When temperatures dropped back to freezing — as low as 25 degrees in the north and central parts of the state — “it completely froze the blossoms and the tiny fruit,” she said.
The freezing of the fruit resulted in the crops being damaged, leading to the loss of available peaches able to be sold across the country.
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How does climate change affect peach crops?
The losses to the state’s peach crop are a sign of things to come with fruit crops as temperatures get warmer in the changing climate, experts say.
Temperatures in Georgia have risen about 0.8 degrees Fahrenheit since the beginning of the 20th century, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Georgia’s warmest consecutive five years were 2016-2020. Under scenarios with higher emissions, the state is projected to experience “unprecedented” warming.
Knox said winter is the season in Georgia that’s warming fastest, probably twice the speed of other seasons, so the state can expect to see more warming winters in the future. This will continue to impact crop health across the state and the future of agriculture in Georgia.
Most farmers choose tree varieties so they can harvest some peaches earlier and some peaches later, to spread out the harvest, Knox said.
“That’s risk prevention because even if they have early blooming varieties that get hurt, they’ll have later blooming varieties to harvest,” she said.
Knox said it’s likely the state’s peach farmers are going to have to further reduce their risks by planting varieties that require fewer chill hours, but that makes them susceptible to frost events when the plants bloom early.
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Will peaches be available from other states?
While Georgia produces millions of peaches a year, it is the third-largest producer of peaches in the United States. Peach lovers can look toward the crops from California and South Carolina, are the first and second ranked states producing the fruit, to satisfy their craving.