Even though Georgia is known as the ``Peach State,'' it traditionally vies with South Carolina for second place in production. South Carolina has about 17,000 acres, 1,000 more than Georgia.
California, the Number one producer, grows about eight times more than either state.
The recent arctic blast sent temperatures plunging into the 20s and 30s in some orchards in South Carolina and Georgia, but growers report no significant damage except in Georgia's southernmost and northernmost growing areas.
Duke Lane of Lane Packing in Fort Valley in Middle Georgia where the bulk of the state's crop is grown says he believes growers dodged the bullet.
``We're optimistic about the crop right now. We're in one of the best situations we've been in in a long time," Lane said.
Growers in south Georgia and north Georgia were not so lucky.
Mike Abbott, manager of Burton Brooks Orchards in Barney, about 50 miles north of the Florida line, said he lost about 40 percent of his crop in the subfreezing temperatures Tuesday morning.
Abbott said the 500-acre orchard will still have an ample supply of fruit for its roadside stand, but will have less to ship to Northern markets.
Jimmy Echols of Jaemor Farms in Lula said he lost 20 to 50 percent of his crop when temperatures dropped to the high 20s Monday and the low 20s Tuesday morning, but he was optimistic about the quality of the remaining fruit.
"We always have to worry about the weather this time of year," Jaemor's Judah Echols said. "We're doing pretty well. If we can hold on to what we've got, we'll still be okay."
He said that in the past twenty years there have probably been "about five or six years when we didn't have any peaches" because they would all get killed.
Echols said peach growers in the state are still not out of the woods because of the threat of more freezes over the next three weeks or so.
Desmond Layne, a peach specialist at South Carolina's Clemson University, said his state suffered no significant losses.
A bumper crop of peaches would be worth about $40 million to South Carolina, and Taylor estimated the value of Georgia's crop at between $50 million dollars and $65 million.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2004/3/161118