Two weeks after the devastating freeze that hit south Texas, industry experts said the damage the cold caused is coming into sharper focus.
Texas AgriLife extension specialist Juan Anciso said severe freezing temperatures in south Texas from Feb. 14-16 subjected citrus groves to temperatures as low as 21 degrees. One night saw temperatures drop to below 26 degrees for 12 hours, and another night saw temperatures stay below 26 degrees from seven to nine hours.
That’s quite damaging to many crops, and especially to citrus, he said. The fruit on the tree froze and will be unsellable.
“We also know that the production for this coming year, which basically begins at the end of September and goes through next May, is affected because this is the time for the blooms to begin to set,” he said. “In some sense we lost two crops.”
It is still premature to determine the extent of damage to citrus trees, but he said it was most severe for lime trees, lemon trees, and grapefruit and orange trees that were less than three years old.
Early estimates of damage to Texas citrus producers are ranging from $230 million up to $300 million, and Anciso said that doesn’t include any potential tree loss.
Besides the loss of the remaining 2020-21 crop, Dale Murden, a grower and president of Texas Citrus Mutual, said at least 75% of the 2021-22 crop also is erased, for a total $305 million estimated sales loss.
Murden said that older citrus trees will need to be pruned back significantly but likely are not dead. A couple of thousand acres of younger trees, from one to three years old, are likely dead, Murden said.
Vegetable outlook
Anciso said estimated freeze losses to Texas vegetable crops were $150 million, mostly in the Winter Garden region and the lower Rio Grande Valley. Many leafy green crops were affected.
Anciso said damage to the Texas onion crop, which begins shipping in mid-March, has been “guesstimated” at 20% to 30%.
“For the most part, the crop has made it but there’s no doubt there will be some fields that will be
(plowed under),” he said.
Anciso said the last devastating freeze to hit the citrus crop in the lower Rio Grande Valley happened in December 1989.
“We have had cold weather between 1989 and now, but (the freezes) never really had any significant damage to them,” he said.
