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Another Frigid Night Poses Serious Threat To State's Farmers

Tribune photo by JIM REED

Strawberries are covered in protective ice in a Fancy Farms field this morning.

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By NEIL JOHNSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 21, 2009

Updated: 01/22/2009 05:13 am

TAMPA - Freezing temperatures from the Panhandle to the Everglades pose a serious threat to the state's agriculture industry.

Farmers face the possibility of losing all or part of their crops as temperatures are forecast to drop into the 20s or lower from Hillsborough County north and to freezing or below elsewhere, except for areas along the east coast.

"It is a serious threat," said Terry McElroy, spokesman for the Florida Division of Agriculture and Consumer Services. "Depending on how cold it gets a lot of vegetables are in danger."

The National Weather Service has issued freeze warnings that wallpaper all of Florida, even reaching into the vegetable growing region south of Lake Okeechobee. Pinellas County is also expected to feel freezing temperatures.

"You have to go back to January of 2003 for the last time we had a freeze this far south," said Ben Nelson, state meteorologist. "It will probably go to freezing all the way to the Everglades."

Temperatures from the Panhandle to Hillsborough are forecast to drop to at least 27 degrees for three hours or more. Elsewhere, forecasters expect the thermometer to fall to between 28 and 32 degrees for three hours.

If freezing temperatures reach into Florida's winter vegetable belt, growers around the Everglades would use helicopters to stir the air over the fields and help keep temperatures from falling, said Lisa Lochridge, spokeswoman for the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association.

"Everybody's concerned about tonight," she said.

Temperatures aren't expected to drop to the critical 27 degree level long enough to damage citrus crops, McElroy said.

Panhandle farmers face less of a threat because they plant winter crops, such as potatoes, that aren't as vulnerable to the cold, he said.

The freeze comes just as the state's decorative fern growers begin shipping for Valentine's Day, one of the industry's biggest sales days, said Erik Hagstrom, manager of Albin Hagstrom & Son, which grows 500 acres of decorative ferns west of Ormond Beach.

Ferns used in floral arrangements are a $120 million business in Florida, Hagstrom said.

This will be the second night of freezing temperatures in a row, he said.

Like strawberry growers, fern farmers use water to coat the plants in a layer of ice to prevent them from getting colder than 32 degrees.

Reporter Neil Johnson can be reached at (813) 259-7731 or njohnson@tampatrib.com.

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