GA peaches slowly disappearing because of climate change.

[Cattledog]

A 3 degree temp increase over the last 80 years will force growing to move north. Peaches need a significant chill season to bloom in the spring.

CBS Sunday Morning story.

[czarjak]

1. "Stop Global Whining" we were told too.

[Kaleva]

2. I plan on planting peach trees here in Upper Michigan next spring

[Greybnk48]

4. Do you think they will make it?

I'm midway down the eastern side of Wisconsin. I've always just assumed it was way too cold here for peaches.

[Model35mech]

18. Seems 'our' state's climate change is greater extremes winter and summer

Even the cold hardy grapes find it hard to produce grapes 60 miles east of Madison

That energized northern gyre is really pretty good at freezing out buds on semi-hardy stocks buds.

That said never underestimate a garderner from finding a way. South-facing walls of buildings, especially stone or brick can help the tender stuff survive what are now quite regularly occurring spring freezes.

I had a so-called satellite peach that produced fruit that was disk shaped... it grew ok against the back wall of a machine shed, produced fruit once, in it's 3rd year, but it's life ends as it wasn't deer resistant.

[Kaleva]

28. People here have had good results with Contender & Reliance varieties

I'm going to use Backyard Orchard methods and I plan on planting 2 peach, 2 pear, 2 apple and 2 plum trees .

[Greybnk48]

3. In the 50's we grew the best peaches I've ever tasted in our backyard in PA.

Levittown, just outside of Philly and Trenton. I've lived most of my life now in WI and often wondered how we were able to have peach trees that far north. The peaches were amazing!

It would be crazy not to have Georgia peaches.

[IbogaProject]

9. I grew up just across the Delaware in NJ

And there were peach orchards in my area for a long time.

[Pinback]

5. Climate change gets expensive.

If high-profile industries start drying up, maybe more politicians will start to care.

In the meantime, maybe we can be the Peanut State. I think those will be safe for the near future at least.

[scarletlib]

10. Just read today that Republicans plan to disband the Climate Crisis Committee.

They aren’t planning to do a damn thing to address this growing worldwide crisis.

[Turbineguy]

17. Time open a clown shoe store in DC.

[bucolic_frolic]

6. Oh, well, plant McMansions, it's all about the jobs

[GoCubsGo]

13. That has already been going on for decades.

Which is on of the big reasons why Georgia isn't even in the top three peach producers. It's #4 behind, CA, SC, and New Jersey, believe it or not. The same thing goes for their pecan orchards.

[lark]

7. Oranges got moved out of N.FL. years ago because it was too cold.

Wonder if they are more viable further south now or is it even too hot for them?

[csziggy]

14. Oranges used to grow as far north as Jacksonville

But intermittent winter freezes have prevented that for over a hundred years. Now the big threat to oranges is development - the hills around Orlando used to be covered with orange groves - and introduced diseases such as citrus greening:

Huanglongbing (HLB), also known as citrus greening, is the most serious disease of citrus. The disease is spread by the Asian citrus psyllid (Diaphorina citri) (ACP), which has been present in Florida since 1998. ACP transmits the bacteria to the tree when feeding on new shoots. There is no cure for this disease and all commercial varieties of citrus are susceptible to HLB.

In citrus-producing areas with little or no HLB incidence, early detection and removal of infected trees are critical to prevent spread of the disease. However, it is difficult to identify HLB-infected trees because they may remain asymptomatic for months to years after infection. Control of the ACP vector and removal of diseased trees are key to maintaining productive citrus.
https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ourfocus/planthealth/plant-pest-and-disease-programs/pests-and-diseases/citrus/citrus-greening/

Maybe with climate change citrus could be planted farther north again, but control of diseases is the key to whether the trees will survive.

[lark]

16. We live in Jacksonville and my mom had a beautiful orange tree.

It was small when they moved in and grew to being a great big tree that had tons of fruit every January-Feb. Think that was when they were ripe, anyway. Mom died 10 years ago and we sold the house 8 years ago so not sure how it is today, but up to that time it was thriving so well. Maybe groves would work here now, don't know about that disease thing, it never affected mom's tree.

[csziggy]

19. I suspect your mother moved into her house after 1989

There was a severe freeze that winter on Christmas Day and millions of citrus trees died. My family had groves down near Lake Wales and Avon Park in Central Florida and we had to replant significant portions of both groves.

I was downstate for the holidays and had to drive back - I remember the trees along US 27 north of Perry being covered with ice. When we got back to our farm outside Tallahassee, the big horse water troughs had 4-6" of ice and our water pipes had frozen from our well to our house, buried three feet under ground. It was so cold up here, the asphalt on the roads buckled and heaved.

Your mother's tree could easily have had the greening - lots of suburban trees have/had it. It's hard to tell until sometimes years after the tree is infected.Before the Republicans took over the state, the Department of Agriculture would go into yards to test for it and remove infected trees to help prevent it spreading. Then the Republicans decided it was too intrusive and stopped the practice so there are no longer controls and it is killing the industry.

One of our groves had been purchased and planted around 1930 - my grandfather bought the land (out of the 1928 Florida land bust) and my father, his brother, and my grandfather planted the original trees themselves. The other grove was purchased in the 1950s by my parents. After my father died, we sold both groves. Our grove manager had strongly suggested considering taking out the trees as soon as greening showed up and putting in blueberries. None of us were interested in keeping the groves under any circumstance so when we got a good offer we took it - Dad had kept them for sentimental reasons.

[lark]

22. Nope, they were living there in 1989.

In fact, that was the year we moved back to Jax. to help my parents. The tree lived, though it killed about half of the oranges. We pulled a bags of them off the tree the day before so saved them from the deep freeze. It was well established and in a somewhat protected area. They moved there in 1976.

[csziggy]

24. That's surprising! Though there are cold resistant varieties of citrus

Many of my friends have them in their yards here in Tallahassee. Personally, I had far too much of oranges while growing up in central Florida. The piles of rotting orange peels they used to feed to cattle turned me off orange juice and products for life . Though I do like tangerine and grapefruits, we didn't have any in our groves so wasn't forced to pick baskets of them to send north to our Alabama relatives - who repaid us in shelled out pecans from their trees.

[Submariner]

8. Maine lobsters disappearing into Canadian waters now

Canada can now follow the lobster migration into the Arctic Ocean in the next century and beyond, without competition from any nations.

They will have 100% control of the lobster industry as soon as the Gulf of Maine warms just a couple of more degrees Fahrenheit.

[GPV]

26. Ayuh.

[Diamond_Dog]

11. Ohio grows some delicious peaches

Unless the rethugs have outlawed that too like theyve done to everything else that was once good here.

[GoCubsGo]

12. Well, most of peaches are already coming from California and South Carolina, as it is.

Not that those aren't going to be affected, as well... That being said, Georgia peaches have been disappearing for a while now, due to things like urbanization, and switching to crops that require less water and fewer pesticides. Much like the apple orchard I used to visit as a kid back in Illinois, many Georgia peach orchards are now housing subdivisions.

[Ilsa]

15. Several years ago South Carolina peaches

had been described as better than Georgia peaches, but I don't remember by what agency or ag group or media group. Climate change might be why.

[SYFROYH]

20. I live in GA and hit local stands. It's true.

[Ilsa]

21. I pick out only smaller peaches.

Most are softball size and just as hard. I can't imagine the waste as they go from inedible to rotten.

[VGNonly]

23. Maple syrup

supply is also suffering.

[Easterncedar]

25. Coincidentally..

Maine peaches are now a thing

[Johnny2X2X]

27. Unknown unknowns

Global warming is going to have thousands of effects that we can’t predict.

So many are saying. “Well Michigan seems like the climate will be improved and it will help some things, plus there’s plenty of fresh water.” Well we don’t know what will happen with wildlife. Maybe insects will start destroying crops. Maybe the soil will be less fertile. And the weather phenomena is weird. What about wind storms? It seems we get multiple severe wind storms yearly now in Michigan where I don’t remember them happening by once every few years before.

We’ve seen destructive erosion along Lake Michigan. More nuisance wildlife destroying crops. Who knows what’s next. But don’t always assume global warming will be good for any state.