US peach crop worst in nearly 100 years
"The closest comparison we have right now is, looking back at the historical records has to go back all the way to the 1930s,” says research horticulturist Tom Beckman, making it what they say is one of the worst peach seasons in about a hundred years.
"We have never been so short. Hardly any of the commercial material that's out at grower's orchards was designed to deal with chill this low. We've never seen trees this low on chill before. I haven't, in my entire career, seen trees in some cases receive less than half the chill that they normally expect,” says Beckman.
They say the poor production is due to not enough cold temperatures in the winter and an unexpected freeze in the Spring. While he predicts that there will be enough supply to get through the season, the shortage is likely to affect the prices consumers can expect to pay for peaches in supermarkets.
source: 13wmaz.com