Late freeze leads to sparse peaches at S.C. roadside stands

LEXINGTON, S.C. (WIS) - The peach season is well underway in South Carolina, but because of late freezes, the crop isn’t looking too peachy.

“There’s less peaches. We’re operating on 15 percent,” said Mandy Bodie, Operations Manager of Sweet Peach Roadside Stand in Lexington. While that’s not ideal, Mandy Bodie said others have it much worse.

“Oh yeah, there are some farms locally in Ridge Spring that’s already closed for the summer. They’re out of peaches, but we’re still going,” she said.

This is due to the fact that South Carolina had a warm February, a month where chill hours are important, and then some late freezes in March.

“Earlier in the season is when those chill hours were actually affected, and again by February we were about 100 hours short from what we normally would be or where we were last year,” said Sarah Scott, Commercial Horticulture Agent with Clemson University’s Cooperative Extension Service.

Scott said this year 70-75% of the crop was lost.

Not all varieties of peaches though, are impacted the same. “This is a flame prince variety and it’s more of a traditional peach, we have angelus and it’s more of a sweeter peach,” said Bodie. “We normally have white peaches, but this year we do not have as many white peaches, and they’re already gone for the season.”

One agricultural sciences professor said in the last couple of years South Carolina peaches have averaged $100 million dollars in production. “We’re probably looking at, with the 70 to 75 percent loss, 80 million dollar losses as a whole for the peach industry,” said Nathan Smith, Associate Professor of Agricultural Sciences.

Bodie said her peach stand is normally open from Memorial Day to Labor Day, “but this year it may be shortened because we may not have any more peaches.” Bushel by bushel, people are still picking up peaches from Bodie, but their time to get ‘em while they’re ripe is ticking.

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