Region's Fruit Crop Takes Season's Heaviest Hit

Bennett Saunders, 46, has been a farmer since he graduated from college, running the Saunders Brothers farm in Nelson County, Va., with his family. The farm, between Charlottesville and Lynchburg, has about 150 acres of orchards, which yield 50,000 bushels of peaches and apples a year.

Although Saunders said no one flinches when a cold night strikes, farmers were unprepared for the five consecutive nights of low temperatures that he said began about April 6.

"Five nights is very unusual," Saunders said.

Although it's still early in the game for growers, whose fortunes can be won or lost by the return of sunny, warm days and the success of pollination -- Saunders estimates that his farm has lost 20 to 30 percent of its apple crop and as much as 50 percent of its peaches.

"The whole doggone winter has been a mess," said Joe Fiola, a specialist in grape growing and small fruit with the University of Maryland and Maryland Cooperative Extension. "It started much longer than normal and stayed later. Then it was 80 degrees. Now cold weather again. If you talk to a grower in Southern Maryland, they'll tell you they lose a crop one out of every 10 years. This will be one of those bad years for them."

Agriculture officials say the weather might be responsible for destroying as much as 30 to 50 percent of the peach crop in Southern Maryland, as well as wiping out about 30 to 40 percent of the early strawberry crop.

Lidholm said farmers "live or die" by the skies, and anticipating periods of bad weather is just part of their difficult business.

John Marker, 59, who runs Marker-Miller Orchards, with about 350 acres of fruit trees just outside Winchester, Va., considers himself among the lucky. Although some growers he knows were hit by the frost, he still expects to have healthy peach and apple crops.

"People have been calling asking what we're doing to prepare for [unseasonable] weather," Marker said. "I tell them all we can do is pray."