BELLEVILLE, Ill. — When below-freezing temperatures popped up in the St. Louis area forecast, farmers started prepping for the worst.
The peach trees at Eckert's in Belleville are blooming, and that is putting sweat on the brow of Eckert's President, Chris Eckert.
"We just started opening up peach blooms here in the last few days with that warm weather over the weekend," he said.
And while pretty, blooms could be a pretty big problem for farmers across Missouri and Illinois tonight.
"When a flower is open like that, its critical temperature is about 27 - 26 degrees," explains Eckert.
When temperatures drop into the mid-20s, ice crystals can form inside the cells of the flower and cause them to rupture. Eckert said you wouldn't notice any change in the bloom, but it would never produce fruit.
Farmers like Eckert slice flowers in half after frost and freeze nights to see if icing occurred. It's rare, but a heavy freeze can kill an entire orchard's fruit crop.
Eckert's is combating the cold tonight with a surprising ingredient: sugar.
"Applying a fertilizer and sugar to the tree will have some benefit," Eckert told 5 On Your Side, "creating an antifreeze result in the flower."
Mixing sugar with fertilizer is something you can do at home; just make sure the mixture is right for the type of tree you want to protect.
Hopefully, the sugar provides Eckert's trees with a warm boost for tonight's cold. Eckert said there is another bonus.
"We're guaranteed to have sweet peaches this summer, if nothing else," he said.
If you have strawberries in your garden, get some blankets ready. Eckert's has been busy blanketing their rows and even added extra ones to plants that had more blooms.
There is good news for professional and hobby farmers in the bi-state — significantly warmer weather is on the way.
