Apple growers in western North Carolina say they may have lost up to half of their crop because of cold weather last month.
Rick Moss grows about 100 acres of apple trees in Edneyville and told the Asheville Citizen-Times he's heard of losses between 30 percent and 50 percent. Temperatures had dropped to 24 degrees on the night of April 10. Henderson County is the state's top apple-producing county, with 5,000 acres in orchards.
The crop is usually valued at around $24 million. An unusually warm March prompted trees to bloom early, leaving them vulnerable to the cold weather last month. Marvin Owings with the Henderson County office of the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service says the losses will easily reach into the millions of dollars.
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