“We are on adrenaline. We really didn’t have time to think about our sleep. Sarah Côté-Janelle, co-owner of Jardin des buttes, an organic fruit farm in Centre-du-Québec, is at her wit’s end. For three days she has been struggling day and night to protect her crops from frost.
However, a significant part of its harvest has already been lost. “We are still working to save as many as possible, but we must have lost about 20% of our strawberries,” she says. Mme Côté-Janelle is not alone. Many farmers and winegrowers in Quebec have shared their dismay on social networks since Tuesday.
The Les Pervenches vineyard, very popular with gourmets and restaurateurs in the province, said it had suffered its “biggest episode of frost in 24 years”. The winegrowers nevertheless wanted to be reassuring: “The whole team had been on high alert since Monday and the efforts paid off. »
Almost all of Quebec was plunged below the freezing point during the nights from Tuesday to Thursday this week – temperatures nearly 10 ° C below seasonal norms. At the Danville weather station, the closest to M’s farmme Côté-Janelle, located in Tingwick, it was -3 ° C overnight from Wednesday to Thursday.
“A lot of things froze,” explains the farmer. We have 25,000 strawberry plants and at least one flower [sur environ cinq] in each shot froze. To protect her strawberries, Mr.me Côté Janelle covered his fields with thermal tarpaulins, but they did not save everything.
Her orchards of apples, pears and plums have been much harder to protect, she says. “We had to make barrel fires, so literally light little fires around the trees, at night, to warm up the orchards. I don’t know how well it worked yet, I hope it will be easier tonight,” she said.
Unpredictable situations
Pierre-Antoine Gilbert, professor at the National Institute of Organic Agriculture at Cégep de Victoriaville, points out that there are different methods for protecting soil from the cold, but that the weather remains unpredictable and that it is necessary, as much as possible, plan your crops accordingly.
“You shouldn’t think you’re stronger than nature. If farmers start producing their cucumbers and tomatoes now to get more yield and they suffer a few days of frost, they are sure to lose everything,” he says.
The professor explains that in addition to cucumbers and tomatoes, strawberries and raspberries — very common in Quebec — are among the crops most vulnerable to bad weather, especially during flowering. “From 0°C to -1°C, plants can die,” he explains.
The vines are also very vulnerable to frost. Mr. Gilbert explains that the high temperatures arrive earlier and earlier in the spring, which favors the volume of production, but that if frost occurs after the buds have opened, as was the case this week, the vines are all the more threatened. “In France and Switzerland, I have known winegrowers who have lost up to 90% of their harvest due to the cold,” he says. Fortunately, I don’t remember such dramatic examples in Quebec, but it can still be very serious. »
Greenhouses to the rescue?
Mr. Gilbert adds that the most effective method of protecting crops from the cold is still to build greenhouses, but that this option is not within everyone’s reach. Being the owner of a small flower farm himself, he could only rely on protective tarpaulins. “The Government of Quebec is offering more and more subsidies to help growers build them, but greenhouses remain expensive and are not appropriate for all crops,” he warns.
The professor therefore insists on the role that consumers can play in supporting local producers when they go through such hardships: “It may be even more important to buy strawberries from Quebec this year. »
Mme Côté-Janelle hopes that the cold of the last few days will have caused more fear than harm. “We navigate between a mixture of hope and despair. But with all the work we’ve put in, it’s hope that holds us. All is not lost. »