Texas Citrus Crop on the Comeback Trail from Winter Storm Damage
Texas citrus growers took a beating during Winter Storm Uri in February. But, according to a Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service expert, there are signs of life in groves around South Texas.
Juan Anciso, AgriLife Extension Horticulturist, says Texas citrus trees are bouncing back, but fruit is sparse this season following the storm.
An AgriLife Extension study estimated the severe freeze caused $230 million in damage to Texas’ citrus industry. Around 80% of the orange crop and almost 70% of the grapefruit crop maturing in 2020 was harvested by the time the storm arrived, but citrus tree damages were extensive and caused a massive loss of 2021 blooms and subsequent fruit potential.
Many individual growers were dealt severe losses, including total orchard losses, Anciso says. Young, 1-2 years old, and older trees were especially susceptible to the cold.
Producers have been rehabilitating mature survivor trees, those 5 to 20 years old, since the freeze by cutting back and removing all dead woody material. Trees were typically pruned by hand and/or topped and hedged by machine.
“Trees that made it are looking good and showing very good canopy,” Anciso says. “But I am surprised there is any fruit this year given the timing of the severe freeze. Citrus trees bloom from February through early March, and I expected zero production because trees are so vulnerable at that time. But there is some fruit out there.”
Anciso says one of the region’s three large packing plants reported it was in the middle of harvest and shipping quality citrus to retail grocers. But another of the operations shut down in the wake of Winter Storm Uri.
There are also salvageable grapefruit and oranges being sold by roadside peddlers in the region, but Anciso says he does not know what percentage of marketable citrus is being shipped to other parts of the state compared to a typical year.
Poor fruit sets caused other management issues as well, Anciso adds. Producers were not inclined to treat trees for pests like rust mites due to a lack of fruiting potential, and infestations were rampant.
Many orchards were bulldozed, he says. Some producers were able to salvage young tree root stock and re-graft fruit production varieties to them, but piles of dead trees on once active orchards are evidence of the storm’s damage.
Most crops and orchards were insured, and there is hope that Texas citrus will return to pre-storm levels, but it remains uncertain.
For more, continue reading at AgriLifeToday.tamu.edu.
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