Campbell Vaughn: Cold snap's damage to crops already visible; full damage not yet known

Boy did we take a beating last week. Just as we were getting lulled into an early spring, beware the Ides of March (minus three days). What the wind and rain didn’t do to beat up our spring blooms, the weekend’s freeze stomped the rest of the tender plants into the ground. Temperatures in our area ranged from 21 degrees in Johnston, SC, 24 degrees at Bush Field, and Daniel Field hit 26 degrees.

Hydrangeas that had already leafed out will have to start fresh. Same goes with figs. Loropetalum blooms, gone. I am still waiting on the full blueberry and peach crop loss report, which is the biggest concern because that is the livelihood of many farmers in our area. With a freeze as low as 21 degrees in the middle of peach country, with crops mostly in full bloom, I am expecting there to be significant loss. Praying there is not.

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Early assessments on blueberry freeze damage statewide looks to be substantial. Georgia is a top 3 producer of blueberries in the United States, so that crop is huge for our agriculture industry.   

So what is going to happen with the damage in our ornamentals? Hydrangeas and fig should be fine. They will start over and put out new leaves and hopefully don’t get hit with another frost in the middle of April. We will lose the flowers off plants like loropetalum and early blooming azaleas.

The new growth on evergreens will need a little pruning on the tips where new growth occurred during our warm spell and got nipped with the freeze.

One concern is that the bark on woody shrubs may have split with this hard freeze. When woody plants work their way out of winter dormancy, they do what is called sap rising. The plant actually is moving fluids from the roots up into its top portion. When we get that hard freeze, the fluids will freeze and bust the bark open. Unless you do a heavy inspection of your plants near the base and spot the split, you may not find out they are damaged until it gets hot and dry in the middle of the summer and they start to wilt. The likelihood that the damaged plant dies is not great, but splits reduce vascular flow as well as open the plant up for disease and insects.  

Being the eternal optimist, there is potentially some good news about the freeze. Any new warm season annual weeds that germinated in the past few weeks will have gotten smoked by last weekend’s cold. That means if you haven’t put out a preemergence, you still have time. I would suggest doing it soon though. There are so many good preemergence products available, but the easiest one to find that does a great job is 0-0-7 Weed Preventer. Sometimes labeled as a “Crabgrass Preventer,” it works on not only crabgrass, but also a bunch of other annual weeds. One reason I really like the 0-0-7 is that it has 7% potassium, which is so important to help strengthen plant cells and promote root growth.  

And in other news, our world is about to turn yellow because pine pollen is here.

Reach Campbell Vaughn, the UGA Agriculture and Natural Resource agent for Richmond County, by e-mailing augusta@uga.edu.