A heavy frost in the night from June 3 to 4 has taken its toll on some crops in Annapolis Valley. Morse’s Farm Limited owner and operator Anthony Morse said he is waiting to see how well his early potato crop bounces back after the plants, which had been flourishing, incurred significant damage.
Examining his fields on June 4, Morse estimates that the so-called hard frost killed 20 to 25 percent of the leaves on plants in one location and as much as 50 percent in a slightly lower field. He has approximately 20 hectares of early potatoes planted.
Morse said it was the severity and duration of the freeze, which lasted several hours, that compromised the cell structure of such a large percentage of the leaves on his potato plants. He said he’s never seen potato plants so far along damaged so severely by frost at this time of year. The crop had been off to one of the best starts he’s ever seen.
Luckily, the underlying portion of the plants still appear healthy. Morse said only time would tell how badly the frost would impact his operation in terms of yield and monetary loss. “My fear right now is that they took a serious hit,” Morse said.
Kingscountynews.ca describes how Greg Webster, owner of Webster Farms in Cambridge, called it “a deep, severe frost”; more like one you would see in the fall. He said anyone without frost protection on fruit crops would have incurred damage, perhaps severe damage, from the frost.
