Nashville, TN – Thanks to a mild winter and a warm, sunny spring, Tennessee’s famous strawberry crop looks good despite the recent frosts.
“We had a pretty good frost in many areas of the state,” says Tammy Algood, fruit and vegetable marketing specialist with the Tennessee Department of Agriculture. “However, temperatures in many places did not get as low as was predicted. The actual temperatures will vary depending on air drainage, ground cover and topography, but it’s fairly certain that some sites saw temperatures below freezing.”
“Our strawberry growers have ‘close calls’ every year, though,” says the specialist, “so they are set up and can react to cold events.”
One benefit of having such warm temperatures earlier in the year, according to Algood, is that the closer the fruit is to being ripe, the more tolerance it might have to cold, due probably to the increasing sugar levels in the fruit.
To read the rest of the story, please go to: Clarksville Online
