
DATE: Friday, September 26, 1997            TAG: 9709260738

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LINDA MCNATT, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: SUFFOLK                           LENGTH:   91 lines

FARMERS FEAR THE THREAT OF FROST

Gentle rains that fell across Suffolk and surrounding counties for the past two days were just what the agricultural spirits called for.

Now, if the first killing frost of the season holds off until later in the fall, Mother Earth in western Tidewater could produce a harvest somewhat more bountiful than most farmers had expected after an unusually cool spring and drought-plagued summer.

Harvest time throughout eastern Virginia is likely to begin several weeks late. The cool spring delayed planting and germination. So many crops, like peanuts and cotton, have yet to mature.

``None of us know - at this point - if the crops will even reach full maturity, and that's because of the late start,'' said Clifton Slade, Virginia Tech extension agent in Suffolk.

What farmers need now is time, said Dr. Norris Powell, associate professor of soil physics at the Tidewater Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Suffolk.

A late frost and a few warm days could make the difference between a winning and losing year.

``If the frost holds off, that would certainly be good,'' Powell said. ``Better late - that's absolutely right,'' for the fall of 1997, anyway.

The earliest frost ever recorded in this area was on Oct. 2, 1947. The latest was on Dec. 3, 1985, Powell said.

According to folklore, the first killing frost is usually expected on the first full moon of October, Slade said. There's some scientific support for the theory. Records show the first frost usually occurs between Oct. 15 and 21.

Slade said three conditions must exist for a frost: a temperature of 37 degrees or less, winds of 5 mph or less and a full moon.

``If we don't get a frost on the full moon in October, the next chance we'll have is around the middle of November, and that would certainly help,'' Slade said.

``Right now, we're just testing the waters,'' he said. ``Everybody has dug a few rows of peanuts. D-Day at its finest will probably come around the first of the week.''

That's when local farmers will likely begin digging peanuts in earnest.

Peanut farmers have to be cautious about when they dig. If a frost occurs during the three or four days the nuts sit on the ground before they're collected for the drying sheds, they will be good for little more than pressing for oil. And they'll fetch a smaller price.

The most recent rain was also essential to the harvest. Until the rain came, the ground in Suffolk and Isle of Wight was so hard that farmers who tried to dig peanuts were breaking plow points, Tidewater extension agents said.

As of Wednesday, rainfall for the year was about 10 inches below the 34.58 inch average. It has cut Virginia's corn crop to about 50 percent of average harvest this year.

A little more than a half-inch of rain accumulated at the Suffolk research center through Thursday. And more may be on its way this weekend.

``We may be getting a dose of a coastal storm on Sunday and Monday, similar to what we just got,'' WVEC-TV meteorologist Jeff Lawson said late Thursday. ``That's the way it looks right now.''

A few more warm days this time of year could help, too, especially the cotton crop, said Rex Cotton, Virginia Tech extension agent in Surry County. A little warm weather and sunshine could coax bolls that haven't yet popped open into doing so.

Although the cotton crop wouldn't actually be damaged by a freeze, a frost that hits before farmers have a chance to defoliate the plants using chemicals - so that pickers can get to the cotton bolls - would cause the cotton to be trashy and filled with leaves. That would result in a lower market price.

Farmers in Southampton County have harvested about 5 percent of the peanut crop, Virginia Tech extension agent Wes Alexander said. In that county, there was a little more rainfall this summer than in some other areas, Alexander said. And so far, it looks like peanut production there will be only slightly less than last year.

Because of near-drought conditions, it appears that production for both cotton and peanuts will be ``spotty,'' extension agents in Surry and Isle of Wight counties said.

``It's not going to be a good year, that's for certain,'' said Isle of Wight County extension agent Robert D. Goerger. ``But maybe it's not going to be as bad as some we've had.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color FILE PHOTO

If frost hits before cotton plants can be chemically defoliated -

which allows for easier picking - the crop would be filled with

leaves and fetch a lower market price.

Color FILE PHOTO

Frost would damage peanuts that have been unearthed and are waiting

to be collected.

Graphic

First Frost

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