Local farmer finds brightside in the ice
Most of those impacts may have been negative, but one local farmer says there was a bright side to the ice. Farmer Chad McComic says he is happy about what the ice did for his crops.
WEST POINT, MISS. (WCBI) – The freezing temperatures over the last few days have caused a lot of issues for many people, but this has not been the case for everyone. Chad McComic is a farmer at CM Farms and Service. He said, for him, the ice did more good than harm.
“This year the ice helped us actually, last year’s cold at Christmas killed our crops. Our main crop during this time of year is strawberries and onions, the ice creates a blanket, and it creates heat that keeps the plants from getting cold and then we have almost two acres of frostbite blankets, and so we were able to protect our crops and they looked good when we checked them this morning,” said McComic.
McComic said the ice also helps the growth of vegetables and fruits.
“The ice prevents it from having burn damage, like last year the temperature just dropped so fast and it was dry, a lot of your farms up north actually use water irrigation to freeze over their crops and to protect them from the cold, and that keeps the plants green and hardy, so that there is no damage to them,” said McComic.
McComic has some advice for those who are unsure about what to do about their crops during cold weather.
“The biggest thing is just watching the weather if you got crops planted, get them covered if you can for the cold, or bring them inside if they are house plants, a lot of it is just trial and error, and hoping for the best,” said McComic. “You can use pine straw, wheat straw, or some old house blankets and put over some of your old tinder plants, you can order some frost blankets to put over your garden or plant material to help keep the frost off of them.”
