Growers Brace for Tough Harvest After Freeze Damages Plants, Berries
by REBEKAH PIERCE
photos provided by BOB McDOWELL
The 2025-2026 strawberry season in Central Florida was going great.
That is, until it wasn’t.
The weekend of January 30 marked one of the coldest periods Florida had seen in over 15 years, with temperatures plunging to 20 degrees and bringing severe challenges to the region.
The cold wasn’t the only problem.
“We’ve had a freeze,” says Bob McDowell, a manager for Fancy Farms, “but never the wind this bad. I’ve never seen a forecast in Florida that said ‘blustery.’ ”
The sudden cold snap put an abrupt end to what had been a very successful season, one McDowell describes as “really, really good.”
“We had great production early on in the season,” he says. “And then it got cold. It’s slowed down production greatly. We just started picking today and in some fields, we’re throwing down 40% of the fruit from damage. Other fields are less, [but] it all depends on the variety of the berry itself.”
When cold like this strikes in the middle of the season, there’s not much growers can do to react.
“You just water them to protect them, you build ice,” says Polk County grower David Lawson, who lost all of his red fruit and 70 percent of his bloom. “Get them to ice over, and that’s what protects them.”
Lawson tried to pick the fields as much as possible on the Saturday before the expected freeze, hoping to save any fruit that was already ripe. While he worked day and night, he eventually found that his efforts were futile as the temperature never rose above 45 degrees. “We shut off the pumps and let God do His part,” he admits. “Nothing can take it. You can’t put out enough water to deal with 24 degrees.”
For three nights in a row, Lawson experienced lows of 22, 20, and 23 degrees, a brutal run even by Florida’s standards for extreme weather, and far worse than a typical freeze. Still, he optimistically notes, “The only positive thing about this freeze is I’ll take a freeze once a year over a hurricane ever again. You can grow out of this; a hurricane changes you for years.”
As the temperatures plummeted Sunday night, high winds further complicated growers’ efforts to protect their crop. In many places, farmers aim to turn on irrigation as soon as the temperature drops to 32 degrees, keeping the water flowing until it rises above 33 degrees to maintain that protective layer of ice. But as McDowell puts it, “The colder it gets, the more water you need to apply.”
The aftermath depended on the strawberry variety. Brilliance fared best, according to Lawson, Sensation was second, and Ember took the brunt of the damage.
“Our berrymakers are still alive,” Lawson says. “All we can do is keep farming.”
Still, he faces the added pressure of being a newer grower who can’t qualify for crop insurance, a difficult position when facing such severe setbacks. “I hope in 10 days I’ve got some bloom. If I can feed them, put some nutrition and fertilizer to them, maybe they’ll bloom,” he says. “In 10 days, I’ll have to make a decision because it’s late in the race: Can I put enough money in them to make them feasible? All the plants are still alive, all the plastic is still here, and that’s better than what a hurricane leaves behind.”
Production will certainly slow in the wake of the freeze, but Lawson remains hopeful. “We were on the numbers leading up to this,” he says, “but it’s going to affect everybody. Hopefully, the quality’s there.”
McDowell reiterates that the freeze was unlike any in recent memory and agrees that there was a difference in damage from one variety to the next. For Fancy Farms, Encores fared better than Embers, both being relatively new additions.
“We don’t plant berries depending on cold tolerance,” he explains. “We’re selecting for other features.”
Despite setbacks, the outlook isn’t entirely grim. “Prior to the freeze, we were doing much better this year than last year,” McDowell says. The season’s start, spurred on by nearly ideal conditions in November and December, saw high yields and strong market prices.
But as Valentine’s Day approaches, a time when demand usually peaks, there’s little question that limited supply will tighten the market.
“We’re not going to be able to meet the demand for berries now. This week and a half has slowed the crop down. There will be berries, just not a ton of berries,” McDowell explains. “Typically, California and Mexico ramp up at the end of our season. The main consumer probably won’t see an impact.”
Both Lawson and McDowell are determined to make the most out of the rest of the season.
“We’re going to clean the fields up this week. We’ll proceed as usual till the end of the season, hoping to make the crop the best we can with what we have left,” McDowell says. Bloom loss is expected to reduce yields by about 20% by March. The plants, however, are resilient, and there’s still hope for a strong finish.
Amid all these pressures, McDowell still finds moments of lightness and connection. He mentions “Rosie,” a strawberry plant he features on social media as a way to engage the public and share the journey of Florida’s strawberries. Tracking Rosie’s progress through sun, frost, and wind has drawn significant attention, offering an up-close look at the beauty, resilience, and, of course, the heartache, of berry farming.
In the end, the 2025-2026 season will likely be remembered not for the bitter cold, but for the resilience of Florida’s strawberry farmers.