Area growers shivering as they look at forecast

Local growers got a scare Thursday morning as temperatures dipped near freezing.

They saw ice on their windshields, but their crops did OK.

They’re more worried about what’s to come.

Another front blowing in from Canada could bring even colder weather early Monday. Temperatures could drop into the upper 30s in town, with inland communities such as Immokalee seeing the mercury drop lower.

“Will it be below freezing or at freezing? It’s hard to say. But I think it’s going to be close,” said Robert Molleda, a warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Miami.

That means growers could see freezing temperatures. It’s been five years since they’ve seen a major freeze.

“We’ve got probably 85 percent of our acreage sitting out there that’s exposed to this right now,” said Mike Schwartz, a farm manager for Taylor & Fulton Inc. in Palmetto, which has tomato acreage in northern, central and southern Florida, including Collier County.

“If we were to have a freeze right now it would be very critical. It could really hurt us just because there was so much planted back after the hurricane.”

The cooler temperatures come as growers are a few weeks into harvesting crops they replanted after Hurricane Wilma, which struck Oct. 24. The Category 3 storm — the first to hit Collier County directly in 45 years — flooded fields and blew over plants and greenhouses. Some growers in Southwest Florida lost everything.

“A freeze would be pretty disastrous,” said Gene McAvoy, a multi-county vegetable agent based in Hendry County.

“Growers are just starting to come back into full production. We’d almost be facing a scenario like we did with Wilma. We are pretty much done planting, other than for short season crops such as beans and cucumbers. If we take a big hit it’s going to wipe out the 2005-2006 vegetable season.”

Chuck Obern, owner of C & B Farms in Clewiston, lost 80 percent of his ethnic vegetable crops to Wilma. The farm grows specialty peppers, eggplant, herbs and a variety of other leafy vegetables.

Obern wasn’t too worried Thursday morning. He’s crossing his fingers there won’t be a freeze Monday.

“I can’t do anything about it,” he said. “I hope it doesn’t come.

That would be a double whammy. We had the hurricanes take our crop in the fall. Now we may have a freeze take our spring crop. So it wouldn’t leave us with much.”

The low at his farm on Thursday morning was 42, well above freezing, he said.

Lehigh Acres and Immokalee saw a low of 35 on Thursday. In LaBelle, the temperature dropped to 36, said WINK-TV weekend meteorologist Scott Zedeker.

“We did have a lot of reports of frost,” he said. “We had heavy frost in Lehigh, Port Charlotte, LaBelle and out in Immokalee.”

But there could be a lot more frost on the way.

Another cold front will start to blow in Sunday, Zedeker said.

The high temperatures may not even reach into the 60s.

“Most likely we are going to get a freeze watch first, probably for all of Southwest Florida. I wouldn’t be surprised,” Zedeker said.

Local growers say they’re surprised to see such cold temperatures in Southwest Florida.

“Actually it’s scary,” Schwartz said. “The whole reason you farm this far south is to try to stay away from that cold weather.”

Citrus growers aren’t as worried about the cold front.

For citrus crops to be harmed temperatures have to reach 28 degrees for four hours or more.

Cooler weather can actually improve the taste and quality of fruit.

“Right now we are OK,” said Ron Hamel, executive director of the Gulf Citrus Growers Association, which represents growers in Collier, Lee, Hendry, Glades and Charlotte counties. “Nobody is calling in worried, but I imagine everyone is watching the weather forecast to see if there are any changes in what they are predicting.”

Local citrus growers, who saw severe damage from Hurricane Wilma, have actually had a few bouts of good news this week.

On Wednesday, the U.S. International Trade Commission made a final determination that Florida orange growers and processors have been hurt by dumped Brazilian orange juice.

That means the antidumping duties on imported juice will remain in place for nearly two years — possibly longer.

The decision came after a four- month-long investigation.

On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture left the estimate for the Florida orange crop unchanged. Some expected the estimate to be lowered because of damage from Wilma and the continued spread of citrus canker, a bacterial disease that poses a serious threat to the industry.

The Florida orange crop is pegged at 158 million boxes. The state’s grapefruit estimate also remains the same at 16 million boxes.

“The fact that there haven’t been any changes is good,” Hamel said. “Hopefully the prices will continue to be strong for those that have fruit.”

Also on Thursday, the USDA announced it would provide an additional $100 million to compensate Florida citrus growers who have lost trees to citrus canker.

The disease has been widely spread across the state by the hurricanes of the past two years.

As costs mounted in the fight against the disease, growers became increasingly concerned that they may not get any money for their lost trees.

For the rest of the week, temperatures will be warmer in Southwest Florida. The lows are expected to be in the 40s.

On Wednesday, St. Matthew’s House on Airport-Pulling Road in East Naples and the Immokalee Friendship House at 602 West Main St. opened their doors to homeless residents fleeing the cold weather. They may be asked to do the same Sunday.

The Immokalee Friendship House only had two people check in because of the cold weather on Wednesday.

“We gave more blankets out than we usually do,” said Monica Fish, the executive director of the homeless shelter.

The shelter is in need of more blankets and sweaters. On Thursday, it handed out 25 blankets and 16 sweaters in anticipation of cooler weather this weekend.

There’s plenty of room for more people if the Friendship House becomes a cold weather shelter again Sunday, Fish said.

“We only have 23 people in the building,” she said. “We have two single women, one family and the rest are single men. The season is a little bit slower right now.”

At St. Matthew’s House, it was busier than usual on Wednesday night.

“We saw quite a few people,” said volunteer Todd Melkowits.

“A lot of people slept here. We handed out a lot of blankets for those who chose not to sleep here.”

By Tuesday morning, temperatures should be back up in the 40s again, Zedeker said. So there will only be one night of cold to fret about, he said.

“You’ll forget about the cold weather really fast,” he said.

“Next week will probably be warm weather for us from Tuesday all the way into the weekend.

We will have a southerly wind that will warm us up gradually through the week.”