A killing frost hit Carroll County on April 21 caused widespread damage at local vineyards, farms, home gardens and the forest.
“It looks ugly right now, really, really ugly,” Doug Hausler, co-owner of Keels Creek Winery, said. “One variety we grow got hit hard. It lost its primary bud and we won’t know if the secondary is a viable bud until three weeks from now. The rest of the vineyard had scattered damage. Each grape variety comes out at a different time. Some weren’t close at putting leaf out. Those probably survived the best. But I won’t know how well those survived until they bud out in 2-3 weeks.”
He expects they have lost most of this year’s crop, a reduced crop at the very least. It got as low as 28°, turning green growth on the grapevines into something that looks like black wilted lettuce.
Hausler, who has been operating the vineyard and winery for 15 years, says the plants will grow back, but this is a big blow. In 2007 they had what was referred to as an Easter massacre. After a warm winter and early spring, there were two days of 28° weather followed by two days of 16°.
“We had plants that exploded,” Hausler said. “We lost 90-95 percent of two varieties. They were killed completely.”
Keels Creek might be able to make wine from fruit produced elsewhere. But since their effort is to use only Arkansas-grown fruit, it may not be possible to buy fruit elsewhere because the freeze damage was so widespread.
Railway Winery near Beaver also got hit hard, Greg Schneider said. A day after the freeze found all the primary growth was gone.
“If we’re lucky, we will end up with 20 percent off the secondary buds,” Schneider said. “It got down to 26 degrees.”
Railway Winery is no stranger to misfortune. They started the operation in 2008 and then had to start over in 2014 after a flood destroyed the vineyard and the winery. Four years ago, they had the snow in May causing the same kind of damage seen this year.
“Normally it is not a problem because most of our varieties are later budding,” Schneider said. “We had the bitter cold after having a pretty warm winter. I had a couple of vines that froze through that I had to cut to ground to start back. Then we got this. I’m just hoping that Hindsville Farms wasn’t hit because that is where we get most of our fruit.”
Schneider said it helps that they are now diversified with their Butler Creek Distilling. Products include a New Moon moonshine, Full Moon moonshine and Clawfoot Gin.
“I just order my grain,” he said. “I don’t have to worry about the grain being destroyed by frost.”
Organic farmer Larry Lowman, who lives in southern Carroll County, said while apples had total flower destruction, orchards on high plateaus or mountaintops may have escaped with much less damage. The few grapes and muscadines had all new growth killed. Based on his significant damage, he guesses that there was major damage to area fruit growers, with harm to strawberries, blueberries, grapes, and fruit trees.
The low on his front porch April 21 was 21°, so he expects down in his garden, it was 18 or 19°. The next morning it was warmer, but still below freezing.
He had single and, in some cases, triple layers of frost cover blankets. Some plants survived but expects more than half of his strawberry crop is gone.
When he stepped out his door after the frosts, the smell of dead plants was heavy in the air.
“The oaks here in my valley had all mostly broken,” Lowman said. “The buds had just barely opened and revealed a tiny compact half-inch wad of green which, today, is brown. I drove to Harrison this afternoon to pick up my summer’s supply of dolomite. It was interesting once I got headed east on 412 and could look over large areas of valleys and mountains as the highway crested ridgetops. Looking at the Osage River valley from a high ridge, it was clear what had happened from the color of the landscape.”
The bigger mountains were green for about the upper one third of their height. From there on down they became increasingly dull, and the lower third and valleys were dead dark brown, except for an occasional elm, cherry, or boxelder that survived. Throughout the valleys, the sycamores, sassafras, and all species of oaks – red, white and post – were toasty brown.
Oaks, in particular, provide a lot of food for wildlife, so the late frost could have a big impact on acorn production.
“I would guess there will be a significant impact on the mast crop this season,” Lowman said. “The catch is it depends on where the trees are located topographically. Trees on mountaintops will likely have some nut crop. Trees on lower slopes and in valleys will have none.”
Other wild natives took a big hit, including those along Dripping Springs Rd., Lowman said. “The new Christmas Fern growth was toast, the bellworts were brown mush and the Lindera foliage was fried.” He saw a pair of planted tulip poplars in Alpena about 35 feet tall where all the foliage had turned black.
Madeleine and Andrew Schwerin of Sycamore Bend Farm, said their valley on Keels Creek made it down to 25°, but tomatoes and squash were protected in hoophouses.
“We covered them and all the outside spring greens with some 2,000 feet of row covers,” Andrew said. “I basically had to call the crew in for an extra day of work. There was no damage in the garden. Unfortunately, nature was left to the mercy of the very late freeze. Many of our oaks had leafed out, and the leaves were burned by the freeze. Quite sad.”