Georgia peach growers applauding freezing weather

HALL COUNTY, Ga. — There is one group of Georgians who are loving this latest blast of winter: peach growers.

"It just makes you feel good about the situation," said Drew Echols of Jaemor Farms. "Last year, there was a problem. I did have to worry about it. This year, it's a nonissue.”

He owns a 150-acre peach orchard in Hall County. He said the key to lots of fruit is a "big chill."

"It's kind of like us sleeping. If you're operating on two hours of sleep per night, it eventually catches up with you," Echols said.
 
Echols said if the trees don't get between 750 and 1,200 hours of temperatures below 45 degrees, they won't produce nearly as many peaches. That's what happened last year in middle and south Georgia.

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Channel 2 visited a farm in Crawford County. Some of the trees had barely 50 peaches on them.  There should have been at least 800 per tree.

Echols’ trees did better, but 2018 could be a season to remember all over the state, because this winter has packed a punch.

"I have a friend from Musella, Georgia who called me, and he was watching my temperatures up here and his down there. He was colder than I was. They're happy. They're ecstatic,” Echols said.

Cox Media Group