While many area residents have welcomed the warmer temperatures of recent days, area peach growers in the Ridge region don’t view them with quite the same fondness.

If temperatures become too warm too soon and are followed by another stretch of cold and freezing weather the combination could prove devastating for their 2010 crops. 

Right now though, things are just fine.

“Bud movement (or any bloom) right now would not be a good thing, and if that were happening right now I’d bet money that we would be in some trouble, but our fruit is still dormant,” said Sonny of J.W. Yonce & Sons in Johnston, which grows an extensive array of peach varieties.

During winter months, peach growers closely monitor “chill hours” or the number of hours during which a temperature of below 45 degrees Fahrenheit is recorded.

Peaches vary in their “chill hour” requirements from between 400 and 1000 hours.

Yonce said those hours have already been fulfilled for his company’s trees following several weeks of below average temperatures in the area.

“Most of our varieties (of peaches) need between 600 and 1000 hours and all of our peach trees have had their chill hour requirements satisfied,” added Yonce.

This week’s warming trend and temperatures in the upper 60s had concerned some that the peaches might begin to start the blooming process far too soon.

But one grower says that with the upcoming forecast predicting night time temperatures back in the 30s that there is little to fear of that scenario right at the moment.

“It’s not a big concern right now that the trees will be coming out of dormancy,” said Farm Manager Jason Rodgers of Titan Farms in Ridge Spring. “We’ve only had a few days (of warmer temperatures) and they need around two weeks of weather like that when it’s getting warmer at night. Right now the buds are really, really tight and the trees are dormant. They would need couple of weeks of temperatures in the 70s to start moving. They might be thinking about (budding), but they’ll sit there and wait.”

Yonce said that area growers will continue to do what they always do at this time of year – watch the weather and wait.

“It’s all about the weather from here until March … weather, weather, weather,” he said.  “This might be one of the earliest dates where we’ve accumulated our chill hours so we have a long way to go, but right now we’re okay. And as long as they stay asleep we’re in great shape because once the buds start swelling up there’s no turning around after that.”

Rodgers added that the extended cold weather the area has seen could actually translate into a better bloom once the peach trees do decide to open up – hopefully sometime in March.

“When it does warm up the trees will be ready and we’ll probably have a good bloom this year,” he said. “We need to stay cool until the middle of March and they’ll be ready to come out.”