AREA PEACH CROP LOOKS GOOD FOR MOST VARIETIES

Despite hard freezes in early November and early March, after nearly a month of above-freezing weather, area fruit growers say this year's peach crop will be a good one for most varieties.

While peach growers in northwest Missouri saw all of their peach trees killed outright by last November's zero-degree weather, growers in Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois say the early March freeze here only affected some of the earlier varieties of peaches.

Bill Beggs, who owns and operates Pioneer Peach Orchard on Silver Springs Road in the southwest part of Cape Girardeau, said the March freeze killed most of his Red Haven peach crop.

"Only one-third of our Red Haven crop survived," he said. "We started picking what was left about 10 days ago. We had so few that it wasn't worth opening our stand at the orchard, so we took what we had over to the (Pioneer Orchard) market in Jackson to sell."

Beggs said the next variety that will ripen is the Glohaven, which should be ready about July 20. The following week the Lorings should be ready.

"With the exception of the early Red Havens, we'll have a full crop of the later peach varieties," Beggs said. "We'll be opening our stand at the orchard later this month when the peaches are ready."

Beggs said he expects prices this year will be about the same as last year, ranging from $10 to $25 per bushel or 20 to 40 cents a pound. "The price depends on the size and quality of the peach," he explained.

David Diebold of Diebold's Orchards at Kelso and Benton said the March freeze caused extensive losses to his Red Haven crop, especially to the peach trees near Benton.

"We lost about two-thirds of our Red Haven crop in the Benton orchard," he said. The rest of the Red Haven trees are on the rolling hills near Kelso, and were not affected by the cold.

"We've got a full crop of peaches on all of our trees in the Kelso orchard," said Diebold. "We plan to start picking the Glohavens on Monday and the Lorings around July 19, if the good weather conditions continue for ripening."

Larry Flamm of Flamm Orchards on old Route 51 near Cobden is one of the few growers in Southern Illinois who still grows both peaches and apples. A series of hard freezes in the 1980s caused many fruit growers in the Anna-Jonesboro, Cobden, and Carbondale area to give up on peaches and concentrate more on the larger and more sturdier fruit crop, apples.

Flamm said the early March freeze did not cause as much damage to the early peach varieties as it did in Missouri. "We started picking Red Havens about 10 days ago," he said. "We still have some left. The next peaches to ripen will be the Loring and Harmony around July 20.

Flamm said 15-20 years ago, there were as many as 60 peach growers in the area. Today there are around six, he said.

"The big problem with growing peaches is the cold weather damage to the trees," he said. "You can lose one crop if the freeze kills the blooms, but if it kills the trees, it takes several years to get back into production. We did have some tree damage here last November, but nothing like what they had in northwest Missouri."