Deep Freezes Last Winter and Spring Cost Some Fruit Farmers in Southern Maine Part of Their Harvests

Oct 26, 2023

By Carol Bousquet

Extreme temperature drops last winter and spring cost some fruit farmers in southern Maine part of their harvests.

In May a late spring freeze ruined Ellen McDougal's Honeycrisp and Evercrisp varieties due to their early bloom time.

"We were at full bloom. The 17th of May everything was in full bloom, pink and white. The next morning we went out and they were brown, all the blossoms were brown. Some varieties bloom earlier and those are the ones that were affected," McDougal said.

McDougal says the subzero temperatures Maine experienced in February caused other fruits to suffer as well.

"We lost all the peaches in February, the temperature went down to minus 15, minus 16 degrees, so we lost all of the stone fruit. It was a double whammy," she said.

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Video: A chain harrow is a game changer

Utilizing a rotational grazing method on our farmstead with our sheep helps to let the pasture/paddocks rest. We also just invested in a chain harrow to allow us to drag the paddocks our sheep just left to break up and spread their manure around, dethatch thicker grass areas, and to rough up bare dirt areas to all for a better seed to soil contact if we overseed that paddock. This was our first time really using the chain harrow besides initially testing it out. We are very impressed with the work it did and how and area that was majority dirt, could be roughed up before reseeding.

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