Extreme weather not likely to damage peach crop

Don’t worry your peach cobbler will be fine. That’s the message from Kent Livesay at Livesay orchards when it comes to the cold snap and the peach blooms around Oklahoma.

Kent and his family have been growing peaches near Porter, Oklahoma for years. KRMG called to make sure all was well and he assured us it was. It turns out the weather that can hurt, can also help.

“The weather cooled off last week and kind of slowed down the progression of the blooms” he explained.

Listen to the entire conversation with Kent by clicking here.

“If they were all in full bloom that would probably cause enough damage to where it would be economic damage” he went on.

Kent told us the closed blooms will stand the cold much better than those that are open.

He also says the trees protect themselves with duplication.

“We could part of the blooms and still have a real good crop” he pointed out. “The trees produce more blooms than what we need for a full crop.”

We asked Kent if they ever use things to help keep the trees warmer. It turns out they do but what they use might surprise you.

“On a real calm night sometimes we’ve used helicopters” he noted.

“Sometimes there can be warmer layers of air above but when there’s too much wind the air is already mixed and it’s pretty hard to raise the temperature very much with artificial heat.”