Freeze forces Hendry County blueberry farmers into high-stakes waiting game

LABELLE, Fla. — After several freezing nights across Southwest Florida, blueberry farmers at Blueberry Bunch Farm in Hendry County are anxiously waiting to see how their crops weathered the cold.

Senior reporter Emily Young learns how to protect blueberries from the cold:

While the fields may look calm for now, growers say it’s still too early to know the true impact. Damage from freezing temperatures can take anywhere from one to three days to become visible, leaving farmers in a stressful holding pattern.

This is definitely a waiting game, the farmers say, noting they’ve never experienced temperatures like this at the farm before.

Adding to the uncertainty, they’re growing several new blueberry varieties this season, varieties they haven’t worked with before, making it difficult to predict how the plants will react to frost.

To protect their crops, growers relied on their irrigation system, their primary defense against freezing temperatures.

When conditions dip below freezing, the system releases a constant mist of water that is actually warmer than the fruit. As that water freezes, it forms a layer of ice that acts as a protective barrier, keeping the berries from dropping to damaging temperatures.

But that strategy comes with a major limitation: water.

The irrigation system depends on ponds surrounding the farm, and farmers say those water levels are already dangerously low.

“For the irrigation system to work, we need a high capacity of water,” said Kris Velasco of Blueberry Bunch Farms. “We had enough for this night and the last two nights, but we wouldn’t have enough for one more night. So, fingers crossed there’s not going to be any more freeze, and it looks like this was the last night for a long time.”

If another freezing night were to hit before rainfall replenishes those ponds, farmers say the consequences could be devastating, potentially wiping out all 200,000 pounds of blueberries grown at the farm.

The immediate forecast brings some relief, with temperatures not expected to drop below freezing overnight. Still, farmers caution that appearances can be misleading.

While the blueberries may look fine now, it will take time to determine whether the cold caused internal damage to the fruit, damage that could affect both yield and income for the season.