Early reports indicate that there looks to be a lot of loss in green beans in Florida following this month's Hurricanes Helene and Milton. "We had significant damage," says Robert Reesor of Rouge River Farms. "There's a lot of green bean damage after Milton."
This starts with sandblasting that damaged the plants and killed a significant number of acres of green beans in Florida. "Right now we're thinking most of the Florida Thanksgiving beans are in trouble. It'll take another week or so to know for sure what is left in those fields but there's a lot of loss," says Reesor, adding that the hurricane affected fields in Clewiston, south of Clewiston and LaBelle in southern Florida. "The scouts are saying it's maybe 60-70 percent of green bean yields will be lost."
Timing of hurricanes
The green beans in the region were still three to four weeks away from the start of harvest.
Corn was also affected, though possibly less so. "Our corn blew down sideways. Some of it's down on the ground, which we don't think will come back up. The corn that is sideways we hope will grow up out of it. We're hopeful about that," says Reesor.
This is a risky time of year for the production of green beans which is why Rouge River Farms generally spreads production between both Georgia and Florida ahead of the U.S. Thanksgiving. "However those beans were hit pretty hard by Hurricane Helene so the green bean business is going to be difficult through Thanksgiving now," says Reesor."There are still some beans for early November so it might be okay. We're not sure."
For more information:
Rob Reesor
Rouge River Farms
Tel: +1 (800) RRF-9216
[email protected]
https://www.rougeriverfarms.com/