Valentine’s Day freeze causes big damage in Texas

In what some are calling the St. Valentine’s Day massacre, an extended period of cold weather destroyed some crops in Texas and damaged others in mid-February.

More time is needed to fully measure the damage, but industry leaders said the freeze ranked among the state’s worst in recent memory.

“This little freeze was a real booger; I lived through the 1983 and 1989 freezes and they were a lot longer events and got down into the teens, but this one is doing its damage, no question about it,” said Dale Murden, president of Texas Citrus Mutual.

Iced citrus

South Texas citrus growers endured more than 40 hours under freezing, and about four hours at 21 degrees, Murden said. Strong winds made some of the frost protection methods less effective than they could have been, he said.

The freezing temperatures caused damage both to fruit near harvest and the bloom for next year’s crop, he said. About 55% to 60% of the 2020-21 grapefruit crop remained to be picked, along with more than 95% of the valencia crop; Murden said the industry expects severe fruit losses.

“There might be some pockets where there is some (fruit) that escaped, but it’s looking like a total loss,” he said.  

The freeze caused some splitting of branches, but Murden said he has not seen any trunks split yet.

“It will take a few weeks to really evaluate the damage to the trees,” he said.

Texas citrus shippers had good inventories of fruit in their storages, he said, though power has been off and on for several days in south Texas. Lack of power to packing sheds may delay shipments of fruit on hand for a few days, he said.

The freeze also resulted in natural gas being temporarily cut off to citrus processing facilities, so that may complicate salvage operations for growers wanting to send frozen fruit to processors, Murden said.

Some growers of oranges and grapefruit have crop insurance.

Even with insurance payments, Murden said growers won’t recover all their losses. Growing costs of $3,000 per acre will be required to keep citrus groves healthy, regardless of what kind of crop growers might see this year or next year.

For citrus growers, the past year has been the wrong kind of “trifecta,” Murden said. First a long drought stressed trees last year, then Hurricane Hanna in July dropped the citrus crop by 20%. 

Finally, Murden said the “Saint Valentine’s Day massacre” dealt the worst blow yet.

Watching and waiting

Besides serious concerns about citrus, Tommy Wilkins, director of sales at Donna, Texas-based Grow Farms Texas, said growers speculate there could be a massive gap in the onion crop. Early onion fields are expected to show damage since the bulbs of mature plants were above the ground and more susceptible to freezing.

Texas onion harvest typically begins in early March. Freeze damage, plus the possibility of “seeders” — when a weakened onion plant attempts to regrow — are big concerns, he said.

Leafy vegetables such as kale and other greens were wiped out by the freeze, and it will take replanting to harvest another crop in 45 to 60 days, Wilkins said.

Cabbage, a big demand item for St. Patrick’s Day (March 17), was set back by the freeze but the crop wasn’t as badly hurt as leafy greens were.

Because Texas cabbage represents about 30% of the total U.S. cabbage supply in February, Wilkins said any shortfall in supply from Texas could spur prices nationwide.

Dante Galeazzi, president and CEO of the Texas International Produce Association, said in a Feb. 18 e-mail that south Texas cold temperatures were mostly in the rear view mirror, but sub-freezing night temperatures were forecast for Feb. 18 and Feb. 19.

“Uvalde/Pearsall area will continue to experience below freezing temperatures all day Feb. 18-19, including rain and snow.”

“It’s still too early to tell the extent of the damages in either area ... but it is not looking good for a lot of the produce,” he said Feb. 18, adding that growers would have a better idea by late February regarding the extent of crop losses.

Brent Erenwert, CEO of Houston-based Brothers Produce, said the majority of the firm’s business the week of Feb. 15 has been distributing produce to retail stores, as some retail distribution networks were interrupted because of power outages.

“We are able to go to direct store delivery,” Erenwert said. 

“The other big surge I saw this week is the cold storage business; my cold storage filled up really fast because all these trucks got stuck in Houston and had to reload or miss appointments.” 

He said conditions should be back to normal for the infrastructure by the week of Feb. 22.