Casualties of the harsh winter here included our grapefruit and key lime citrus trees, and our guava tree. However, we had an above average production from our winter garden, and produced the best looking carrots that we have ever produced here this past winter. At our Station, we planted sugarbeets for the second year in the winter (November planting), and in spite of the temperature dipping into the low 20's for several consecutive days, the beets look just fine as seen in the photo above that I took this morning.
However, there is concern in the sugar industry as to how well the cane is going to come up in the spring. It is not unusual for the above-ground growth of fall planted cane to be killed by the occasional freeze in the winter, so that the photo I took today near our farm is not alarming in and of itself. The above-ground dead growth is usually cut back or burned off to let the spring growth come through. For the most part, the fall-planted crop should be OK. Of greater concern than the plant crop is how well the stubble crops of the more freeze sensitive varieties survived the harshest winter we have had in several years. Each successive stubble crop is closer to the surface of the ground and thus will not be as well protected as the previous crop. We will know fairly soon how well our sugarcane crop made it through the winter, inasmuch as spring is right around the corner.
Casualties of the harsh winter here included our grapefruit and key lime citrus trees, and our guava tree. However, we had an above average production from our winter garden, and produced the best looking carrots that we have ever produced here this past winter. At our Station, we planted sugarbeets for the second year in the winter (November planting), and in spite of the temperature dipping into the low 20's for several consecutive days, the beets look just fine as seen in the photo above that I took this morning.
However, there is concern in the sugar industry as to how well the cane is going to come up in the spring. It is not unusual for the above-ground growth of fall planted cane to be killed by the occasional freeze in the winter, so that the photo I took today near our farm is not alarming in and of itself. The above-ground dead growth is usually cut back or burned off to let the spring growth come through. For the most part, the fall-planted crop should be OK. Of greater concern than the plant crop is how well the stubble crops of the more freeze sensitive varieties survived the harshest winter we have had in several years. Each successive stubble crop is closer to the surface of the ground and thus will not be as well protected as the previous crop. We will know fairly soon how well our sugarcane crop made it through the winter, inasmuch as spring is right around the corner.
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