Popcorn-stage strawberries are in danger with recent low temperatures, said Lee Berry of the Berry Patch, U.S. 220, Ellerbe.

Temperatures were expected Friday to drop overnight to 5 degrees Fahrenheit in Richmond County.

“We (all five main strawberry farmers in the county) have put these new covers over the plants in an effort to save them,” he said.

The new white fiber coverings are held down with sandbags.

“It is a $2,000-an-acre blanket,” he said. That doesn’t include the cost of sandbags to hold it down.

The effort is to produce fresh local strawberries for customers in the spring.

Several days ago the Berry family stretched the blankets over one and a half acres on their farm in anticipation of the dropping temperatures.

Hopefully the covering will protect the newest buds still to emerge from the plant, Berry said.

Some early-stage buds have already been killed.

When temperatures improve, Berry said the covering will be removed and kept ready for any damaging temperatures to come.

He has been used to spraying the fields in early spring with water to provide an ice covering to protect the berries. The covering is a new option.

The next dangerous period for the berries will be late February and early March and sometimes as late as the first of April.

Berry said the covering is now preferred to lessen the impact of any threats to plant which otherwise might require chemical applications after water application.

When he began the strawberry operation 15 years ago, Berry said it cost about $2,200 an acre to produce a good crop. Strawberries then were $5 a gallon.

“Today strawberries can retail for from $9.50 to $10 a gallon because it costs $8,200 an acre to produce a crop,” Berry said.

“People need to know that with the costs of preserving the crop in keeping it free of insects and disease has become expensive to a farmer,” Berry said.

The heat generated from sunlight filtering through the fiber cover and building up underneath will last long enough to retain a safe temperature throughout a cold night, he said.

n Contact reporter Tom MacCallum at 997-3111, ext. 15: e-mail tmaccallum@yourdailyjournal.com.