Jon Strite with Strite Orchards spent the day Friday preparing for tonight's freezing temperatures. He's doing all he can to save his crops from the frost.
For Strite, one night of cold temperatures can wipe out a crop. " It can mount up dollar wise, that's a lot of money that's out there and it's gone."
So he's doing all he can to make sure the crops last a few more weeks. "We're trapping the ground heat and that helsp to raise the temperature underneath the heat blanket by 4 or 5 degrees. We can cover close to half an acre with each one of those." explained Strite.
But trapping the heat is one of the last lines of defense when saving crops from frost. Strite said, "the first step we take is to produce is that we try to plant crops sensitive on high grounds so on cold nights like this, the cold air sinks."
Strite says while it's not unheard of to have freezing temperatures early in the season, it's not to be unexpected either. "It is a little earlier, we have another week of nice weather, so we gotta see what happens. When mother nature decides the season is over, it's just over."
One suggestion they gave CBS 21 News Friday, is if you have crops at home, you can use a bed sheet to cover them. They advise against plastic, because it can harm the plant if the plastic touches the plant in the cold weather.