PLANT CITY, Fla. — Cooler weather is heading to the Tampa Bay region and farmers are gearing up to protect their crops. Wish Farms crews in Plant City have a game plan for the cooler temperatures.
Nick Wishnatzki with Wish Farms says they have multiple temperature monitoring stations throughout their farm.
"Our team is up in the middle of the night checking those temperatures to monitor and make sure they don’t go below 32 degrees," he said.
Wishnatzki says if the temperature does drop below 32 degrees, they usually wait about an hour and then decide if they need to run their freeze protection on the fields.
"When we are concerned about the freeze we really want to protect that bloom," he explained.
The strawberries start as a bloom and usually take about 21 days to turn into a ripe berry. If the cold weather ends up ruining the bloom or the ripe fruit, it would take the farmers some time to start over.
Wishnatzki says there is a perk when it comes to the3 cold temps.
"As long as we get through it pretty easily which I anticipate we will I think shoppers are going to be really pleased because the berries always come out sweeter," Wishnatzki said.