Costly cold snap for farmers, gardeners, and greenhouses

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) — Many farmers, gardeners, and greenhouses fear some of their crops and plants won’t survive the expected hard freeze.

The potential losses could be in the millions of dollars which is money we won’t see in local economies already struggling during this pandemic.

Wheat is a particular crop farmers are worried about.

“It has the potential to give us about a $30 to $40-million loss across Kentucky,” says UK Extension Professor for Grain Crops, Chad Lee.

That’s a staggering financial hit on an economy already crippled by the pandemic.

“You’re looking at not just the loss of revenue but you’re looking at the loss of supply that will trickle down into the food market as well,” says Lee.

Which means you’ll pay the price at the grocery store.

Lee says the timing is terrible because wheat is at a stage where it’s most sensitive to cold temps.

“Right now is when it’s making the seed so everything up to this point was to get us to where we could get a yield,” says Lee.

And the potential of losing that yield would be devastating for wheat farmer John James,  who has around 85-acres of wheat out right now.

“You’d be looking at about a $32,000 gross revenue loss,” says John James with Walnut Lawn Farm.

James planted in the fall and the crop is just days away from flowering but if the freeze happens all of that hard work will be for nothing.

“There’s virtually nothing we can do to protect against weather incidents,” says James.

Unlike for greenhouse nurseries, like Springhouse Gardens in Jessamine County.

“Pretty much everything that has any kind of tender growth or any kind of flower is gonna have to go under what we call frost blankets or tobacco cloth,” says Richard Weber, Springhouse Gardens owner.

But not everything can be covered so some have to go inside poly-houses which isn’t ideal since customers can’t shop in there.

“So this is gonna really hurt our sales these next four or five days,” says Weber.

Weber says is terrible timing since the weekend of Mother’s Day is their biggest time of year.

“This is the Super Bowl of garden centers, the week between Derby Day and Mother’s Day. This is when we do about 30% of all of our business,” says Weber.

He encourages gardeners to cover up what they can and if possible, bring plants inside.

Weber says here’s to hoping for the best for all.