By Jennifer Dorsett
Field Editor

The extreme cold blanketing the entire state of Texas will have disastrous effects on the Rio Grande Valley citrus crop.

Citrus growers like Texas Citrus Mutual President Dale Murden did their best to prepare for the cold spell but forces of nature are not always kind to farmers.

“The wind was so strong that a lot of the irrigation freezing methods that we do with micro sprinklers and sprinkler systems just weren’t that effective because of the wind was blowing so hard,” Murden, a former Texas Farm Bureau District 13 state director, said. “But then the other side of it is you get down to 21 degrees, and you’re only going to warm the tree up a few degrees anyway.”

If the temperature drops below 28 degrees for six or more hours, he said it’s likely the fruit will suffer damage, but not necessarily the trees. Murden estimated citrus harvest was about 55 percent complete when the cold weather hit, rendering the remaining fruit on the trees frozen and useless.

“This year has been an unusual year to begin with. We’ve been in a drought for several years now. Then we had Hurricane Hannah, and we estimate we lost 10 to 20 percent of the crop at that time,” Murden said. “But all things considered, we were having a pretty good year. Prices were good. Quality was good, and the remaining fruit on the trees after the hurricane was good. Then, the ‘St. Valentine’s Day massacre’ hit, so you never know.”

To add insult to injury, trees were beginning to bloom, which is the start of next year’s crop. So the current weather has now caused damage to two year’s crops.

“Going into next year with a lighter crop poses its challenges and problems. You’re still going to have the same costs going into it, but also you go into it knowing you’re going to have less crop to be able to sell to the public,” Murden said. “So, it’s got to all be thought through and evaluated at this point. But it is what it is, and we’ll deal with it.”

Although it was expected to warm up a little mid-week, another big freeze is expected Thursday and Friday.

“The big unknown for us is we’ve got more freezing temperatures Thursday night and Friday morning,” he said. “Part of the problem was it was supposed to clear off, so that means we would thaw out all the ice that’s on the trees now. That could be even a bigger challenge and problem for us.”

But no matter what Mother Nature throws at the Rio Grande Valley citrus growers and farmers, they’ll survive—and keep farming.

“There’s always going to be a commercial citrus industry down here. We still have some growing businesses down here that are very committed to the industry and had actually been planting new citrus in the last couple of years,” Murden said. “So we’ll weather the storm and make it keep going. And South Texas grapefruit will still be here for you.”

Read more about the impacts of the winter storm on onions in the Winter Garden.