Up To 50% Of FL Citrus Crop Destroyed In Some Areas; Sugarcane, Veggie Toll Unknown
When the worst of Irma's fury had passed, Gene McAvoy hit the road to inspect citrus groves and vegetable fields. McAvoy is a specialist on vegetable farming at the University of Florida's extension office in the town of LaBelle, in the middle of one of the country's biggest concentrations of vegetable and citrus farms. It took a direct hit from the storm. "The eyewall came right over our main production area," McAvoy says.
The groves of orange and grapefruit were approaching harvest. But after Irma blew through, it left "50 or 60 percent of the fruit lying in water [or] on the ground," says McAvoy. Many trees were standing in water, a mortal danger if their roots stay submerged for longer than three or four days.
About a quarter of the country's sugar production comes from fields of sugar cane near Lake Okeechobee, east of LaBelle. Harvest season for the sugar cane crop is only a few weeks away, but Irma knocked much of the cane down, making it more difficult to harvest. "We won't know the exact extent of the loss until it's harvested," McAvoy says.
Fortunately for vegetable farms, the storm hit before most of those fields in his area had been planted. The ones that were planted — perhaps 10 percent of them — were "a total loss," he says. Even unplanted fields sustained damage; before planting, growers typically prepare the fields by covering low rows with plastic to apply fertilizer and pesticides. Irma's winds tore that plastic away.
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http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/09/12/550404709/floridas-veggie-farmers-look-at-irmas-damage-probably-the-worst-weve-seen
