Strawberry farmers are covering up and protecting their crops as last night's winter storm prolongs cold weather conditions into the weekend. Roy Brown, a farmer of nearly 50 years, uses tarps and even sprayers to keep his plants warm through latent heat release.
"Here is the cover, but that helps 2 to 3 to 4 degrees I guess. But we also can apply water which is 72 degrees coming out of the ground and keeps, as it turns to ice it gives off heat and keeps the strawberries and most the plants right at 32," says Brown.
Roy hopes the cold weather doesn't stunt the growth of the berries and delay his harvest in the spring.
We had a warm fall and they were really coming on strong, but now they're like being in a refrigerator and are not growing very fast, or ripening very fast," continues Brown.
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