Temperatures are expected to drop below freezing in some places in Mid-Michigan overnight. Farmers are preparing to take steps to help save their crops.
With apple trees budding and peach trees in full bloom, farmers in Michigan are on high alert. That means they’re making sure that these chilly temperatures and frost don’t destroy crops.
Steve Tennes, with Country Mill Farms in Charlotte, said that when cold temperatures destroy vulnerable crops like apples, you can’t replant and get them back in the same year as you would with corn or soybeans. To protect their crops, they use a special device to keep the temperature above freezing.
“We use frost fans,” Tennes said. “They are the fans that are about 40 to 60 feet tall and they have, essentially, a helicopter blade on them run by a 10-cylinder propane engine with a thousand-gallon propane tank. We use three of those together.”
Tennes said you only get one set of blossoms. If temperatures go below 28 degrees Fahrenheit, about 10% of the harvest will be lost, and you’ll have to try again next year.
Source : Wilx
