Chilling hours sound like a description of leisure time, but they mean something much different on a peach farm.
In order to grow a summer crop of peaches, peach trees require cold temperatures during the winter, which peach farmers measure as chilling hours. After the peach trees accumulate enough chilling hours, the warmer weather of spring will prompt the trees to bloom into flowers that eventually become summer peaches.
A peach orchard in bloom is an inspiring display of renewal during the spring, but we also observe the flowering trees with a bit of apprehension, because additional chilling hours can become killing hours if the flowers are exposed to freezing weather.
We lost almost all of the Georgia peach crop to freezing weather in the spring of 2023, so this perennial danger is a very recent reality.
Most of the peach farms in Georgia are about 90 miles south of Atlanta, where the average last frost date is sometime around the end of March.
We have not had any frost south of Atlanta this spring, and the regional chance of freezing weather declines rapidly after the first of April, so we expect that the peach trees in central Georgia will set a very good crop of peaches for the summer harvest.
With confidence in the summer crop of peaches, we are confirming an epic Summer Road Trip and will update you soon regarding the schedule and pre-order details.
See you on the road somewhere this summer!
Brandon Smith
Georgia Peach Truck
Atlanta, GA