In Central Virginia, unseasonably warm weather in the winter caused fruit trees at several orchards in the Lynchburg region to bloom ahead of schedule. Weather then took a turn with a cold front in early March that has orchard owners and farm managers still trying to assess damage to some of their fruits.
“The fruits are sort of on the time clock,” said Jim Saunders, owner of Saunders Brothers’ Orchard. “Mother Nature told the flowers to open up and then shut them down again.”
Although this year’s freeze is troubling to the owners of orchards across the region, there still is hope the weather cooperates and produces a good crop. Recent weather mostly damaged early-blooming fruits like peaches, nectarines and plums that were fully blooming when the weather suddenly changed.
