MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. — It is a race against the clock.
“There’s a potential we can lose these beans over the weekend, so we are harvesting as much as we can to just in case the weather does come in, very cold, as predicted,” said Sam Accursio of Sam Accursio and Sons Farms. “It can kill them.”
It is not just the dip in temperature, but the wind, that he will be keeping an eye on.
“Some forecasts are coming in at 31 degrees with a slight wind, and if that wind should die, the ice will settle and the plants can’t take it,” said Accursio. “What we do if the temperatures get too cold, we turn the engines on and pump water until the sun comes up, and melts any ice that should be there, and that forms an insulation over the plants and protects them from dying.”
He went on to explain how too much wind can devastate crops and not enough can also be bad.
“Twenty-five miles an hour can kill them,” Accursio said. “The worst thing that can happen is that it will be calm and clear. If that wind should die, the ice will settle, and the plants can’t take it in some locations”
He also explained what kind of weather they’d prefer.
“A little bit of wind is good,” he said. “Five, six miles an hour will keep the frost from settling, the ice from settling on the plants. We love cloud cover on a cold night, because it’s like a blanket over the top of our fields.”
And then comes the wait and hope that the mitigation efforts save his crops.
“Since I was a child out here with my father, it’s the same thing. We have no control over the weather,” he said. “The good Lord has his reasons for bringing this type of a situation to growing areas, but we’re so used to it, we know exactly what to do to try to protect our crops.”
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