Predicting major peach yield reductions in the Midwest and Southeast United States

Abstract

Many fruit crop failures, including those for peaches, are caused by extremely low winter temperatures or by false springs, which is when a hard freeze occurs in the spring after plants have broken dormancy and started to grow. A decision‐support tool was created to predict major, regional peach yield reductions based on the analysis of significant peach crop loss years between 1934 and 2016 in the Midwest (Illinois, Missouri and Arkansas) and Southeast (Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina) regions of the United States using surface temperature data. The tool was tested using data from high‐yield peach years and was found to function well in all the sample years for the Midwest, but only for 75% of years for the Southeast. The tool was then tested on the 2017 false spring event that occurred over parts of the Eastern United States. The tool correctly indicated that the entire Southeast region would likely experience a major peach crop yield reduction, while many peach‐growing areas in the Midwest were spared as not all Midwest stations had accumulated enough growing degree‐days before experiencing a hard freeze. Composite 500 hPa geopotential height anomalies associated with the “warm” periods of false spring events were 100 m above average for the Midwest, and 100–125 m for the Southeast. Cold period composites of the low‐yield years suggested 500 hPa geopotential height anomalies were 100–200 m below average for the Midwest, and 100–175 m for the Southeast. The decision‐support tool will assist the peach industry to anticipate major, regional yield reductions.