GROWERS: OUTLOOK FOR AREA PEACH CROP EXCELLENT

Despite sub-zero temperatures this past winter, peach growers in Southern Illinois and Southeast Missouri are looking forward to an excellent peach crop later this summer.

"Our peaches are in really fine shape. I couldn't be happier," said David Diebold, of Diebold's Peach Orchards in Kelso, New Hamburg and Benton.

Bill Beggs Sr., who with his son Bill Jr., own and operate Pioneer Peach Orchard in Cape Girardeau, said Friday, "At this point, we have more buds on our peach trees than we did at the same time last year. Everything looks good, and it appears we're going to have a another good peach crop this year."

Beggs and Diebold said the recent mild weather has sped up the development of peach trees and buds. "We could see some blooms on the trees in about a week to 10 days, if the mild weather continues," said Beggs.

But growers in other parts of Missouri and Illinois, and throughout the central northeastern United States, say their peach crops have been wiped out by the record cold earlier this year.

In some areas, the severe winter cold not only killed the young peach buds but damaged or killed the peach trees as well.

Only Union and Jackson counties, the largest producers of peaches in Illinois, appears to have been spared significant losses. The hilly terrain of Southern Illinois provided some defense against bitter cold temperatures.

"Anything from Belleville north appears to be gone, and that includes Calhoun County," said Chris Doll of the University of Illinois cooperative extension service in Edwardsville. "East or southeast of Interstate 57 was hit pretty hard, too."

Only 5 percent to 10 percent of peach buds need to survive to produce a full crop, said Bradley Taylor, a Southern Illinois University associate professor.

Illinois produced 15 million pounds of peaches last year -- 3 million pounds less than in 1992 because of a wet spring and late frost, Doll said. The state is ranked about 25th among the country's 35 peach growing states.

Beggs said during an Illinois horticulture meeting he attended earlier this year, "They told us the cold weather had killed every peach tree as far south as Centralia. But the peaches are in pretty good shape from Chester and Ste. Genevieve, southward.

Illinois growers aren't alone in reporting widespread damage to this year's peach crop. Peach orchards in Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia have been practically wiped out.

The American Farm Bureau said the entire peach crop for this year north of the Mason-Dixon line is gone because of cold weather. But the cold weather missed California, which produces about 75 percent of the nation's total peach crop.

Meanwhile, peach growers in Union and Jackson county are as optimistic about this year's peach crop as Beggs and Diebold. Ren Sirles predicts his 200-acre orchard could produce 70 percent to 75 percent of its potential crop if the weather cooperates. That would be an improvement over last year, when Rendleman Orchards only achieved 60 percent.

"I wouldn't guarantee anything because we've got a long way to go," Sirles said. "I wouldn't be safe predicting a crop until after Easter."

Beggs and Diebold agree, noting that a lot can still happen between now and the first of May, such as a hard freeze.

Diebold said right now, the temperatures would have to drop into the mid-teens to cause any problems. He said, "After the blooms open, anything in the mid-20s, or lower would start to cause some damage."

Beggs said a light freeze in March or April would not be bad for the peach trees. He explained the freeze would help thin out some of the excess peach buds, and make for a better quality peach crop this summer.

"If Mother Nature doesn't help us in March or April with a light freeze, (25-30 degrees) we'll go into the orchard around the first of May and thin out some of the peach buds by hand," said Diebold.

Beggs said most strawberry plants probably came through the cold weather in good shape because they were covered with a thick blanket of insulating snow when temperatures dipped to their coldest point in January and February.