Rhode Island won’t have many peaches on local fruit stands this summer. Cold temperatures in February killed most of the flowers on the state’s peach trees. University of Rhode Island plant scientist Heather Faubert said this year, the peach trees didn’t have time to adjust to the cold.
“The very cold temperatures came all of a sudden,” said Faubert. “Throughout November and December and January it was quite warm, and then we got to February and the temperatures dropped suddenly and that’s what killed the crop.”
Faubert said that although very few peach buds survived the cold snap, none of the state’s other orchard crops, like apricots or cherries, were affected. Rhode Island hasn’t lost a peach crop in over 30 years.
