LANCASTER, S.C. —  Several nights of below-freezing temperatures prompted strawberry farmers to go the extra mile to protect their plants. 

What You Need To Know

  • Last week, the Charlotte area experienced several days of below-freezing temperatures
  • A strawberry farmer from Hall Family Farm covered strawberry plants to protect them
  • When he checked plants Thursday, many of the plants looked in good shape with the exception of a few
  • He expects to start strawberry picking at the beginning of the season in April

Hall Family Farm, which offers strawberry picking, is in South Carolina, minutes away from Union County. Every, year it attracts visitors from Charlotte, Union County and South Carolina. 

Last week, owner Kevin Hall used row covers to protect the plants from the wind and below-freezing temperatures. 

“Frost will kill the strawberry blooms. This time of the year, our concern is protecting the strawberry blooms,” Hall said. 

The blooms, as he explains, will become strawberries in 30 days. 

On Thursday, as he pulled the covers, he noticed a few blooms killed by the cold weather. 

“[One night] it dropped down to 26 degrees, which is right at the limit of what these row covers can do to protect,” Hall said. 

However, the good news is there are many green strawberries and healthy blooms. 

This year, he also installed a sprinkler system, which can come in handy during low temperatures with no wind. 

“If there is a clear night, no wind and temperatures drop in the mid-30s, that’s when we would use the water sprinklers,” Hall said. 

Last year, he said he could’ve used the sprinklers when temperatures dropped to the high teens in early March. 

“Plants that only had one cover, we lost all the blooms, and the plants that we had two covers on, we probably lost 50% of the blooms,” Hall said. 

Back then, this delayed the start of the season, but this year with the current state of the plants, he anticipates strawberry picking to start on time at the beginning of April. 

“That means we’ll have a long season hopefully,” Hall said. 

Hall planned to remove the row covers on Tuesday when the weather threat had passed in the Charlotte area.