Sustained rain and cold weather in Florida have wreaked havoc on many of the state's vegetable crops. For radish growers in the Bell Glade area, the inclement weather has all but halted production up to now.
“There is no season,” said Jeff Walker with TC Marketing. “Even the product that's in the ground isn't maturing. This is the closest you can get to just discing the field and starting over.” The problem has been the large amount of rain the state has received. No planting can be done if the field is under water, and even when there's a respite from the rain, low temperatures have been troublesome.
“The rain by itself would have stopped production, but the cold just adds insult to injury,” said Walker. “The cold lowers the soil temperature and stops the radishes from growing. If there's no sunlight, there's no photosynthesis. We could have a nice few days with higher temperatures that start to dry out the fields, but then we get more rain.”
Radishes are on roughly a 30-day crop cycle, so were the weather to suddenly turn and growers got all the sun and heat they could hope for, it would still be another month before volumes would pick up. As such, the scarce supplies and high prices that have characterized the Florida radish market will stick around until at least March.
