{"id":137022,"date":"2026-01-30T01:17:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T01:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/137022\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T01:17:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T01:17:09","slug":"how-florida-farmers-landscapers-are-preparing-for-the-cold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/137022\/","title":{"rendered":"How Florida farmers, landscapers are preparing for the cold"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"How How Florida hard freeze could impact farmers’ crops<\/a> <\/p>\n

After days of cold weather in Florida, more cold weather in on the way with dangerously low temperatures. A rare “extreme cold watch” has been issued for nearly all of Central Florida, as well as a frost advisory for the Ocala area. FOX 35’s Hannah Mackenzie visited Southern Hill Farms to see how they’re preparing for the cold weather to protect their plants.<\/p>\n

ORLANDO, Fla. – Florida is preparing for at least a three-day stretch of dangerously cold weather, where overnight temperatures will dip into the 20s and 30s. Add in the wind chill \u2013 and those temperatures will feel even colder, potentially as frigid as the single digits, forecasters say.<\/p>\n

That’s dangerously cold for people, as the risk for hypothermia and frost bite increases. It’s also potentially damaging to plants.<\/p>\n

SOUTHERN HILL FARMS <\/p>\n

David and Lisa Hill \u2013 of Southern Hill Farms \u2013 said freeze protection protocol is underway at their 120-acre farm in Clermont, Florida. That includes spraying their sunflower, blueberry, and strawberry fields with water, intentionally freezing them, using the ice as a barrier to hopefully protect the plants.<\/p>\n

“These crops are not meant for this kind of cold weather,” said David Hill.<\/p>\n

He said that ice though, it also risky.<\/p>\n

“You\u2019ll have 40-50 lbs. of ice on each plant\u2026 you\u2019ll be breaking branches, which means no production off the branch of course, and the worst part the plant will just fall over,” he said. “We can stake them back later on, but you\u2019ll never get the production out of that plant \u2013 its\u2019 been stressed out and compromised.”<\/p>\n

The Hills said they would have to sacrifice some of their crops to save the rest.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s very stressful, it\u2019s very hard,” said Lisa Hill. “It\u2019s hard on the farmers, hard on the plants \u2013 it\u2019s just a challenge.”<\/p>\n

SOD DEPOT <\/p>\n

At Sod Depot in Clermont, a business that grows and sells grass turf, teams there are using water to protect their products from the dangerous cold.<\/p>\n

“Moist soil will retain heat a lot better than dry soil,” said Lou Silva, president of Sod Depot and Nursery.<\/p>\n

For anyone who has recently put down sod or has grass, he shared some recommendations on how to protect both during the cold:<\/p>\n

If you have fresh sod, cover it with a breathable fabric.For those with established grass, water it 12-24 hours before the freeze. That’s how his teams are preparing to protect their 300 acres of grass. What grass is most impacted by cold weather? <\/p>\n

According to Silva, he said all the most popular grass types in Florida will likely be impacted by the hard freeze. Though he warns homeowners not to panic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s going to turn brown, do not fret,” Silva said. “Do not worry about it \u2013 it\u2019ll come back. Don\u2019t overdo it, don\u2019t overthink it.”<\/p>\n

And don\u2019t fertilize immediately after\u2026 or scalp it, said Silva. Patience is key when it comes to letting your lawn grow back and recover naturally.<\/p>\n

FAMILY ORCHID <\/p>\n

Over at Family Orchid in Sorrento, Chad Lee usually keeps the nursery around 65 degrees \u2013 it\u2019s prime growing temperature, he said.<\/p>\n

According to Lee, he will be monitoring the dropping temperatures with his Wi-Fi thermostat. Lee, who said he\u2019s been growing orchids in Florida for two decades, said he\u2019s prepared.<\/p>\n

“We have heaters and insulation curtains and side door curtains also, so in the evening we close everything,” Lee said.<\/p>\n

If temps drop too low, lee said he will also turn to water.<\/p>\n

Lee waters the soil below the orchids to create steam. It\u2019s a Korean technique, he said, to keep the plants at the optimal temperature so they don\u2019t go into shock and die.<\/p>\n

The Source: FOX 35’s Hannah Mackenzie visited Southern Hill Farms, Sod Depot, and Family Orchid on Thursday to see how they’re preparing for the cold weather and the weekend’s freezing temperatures.<\/p>\n

Polk County<\/a>Florida News<\/a>Weather<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How Florida hard freeze could impact farmers’ crops After days of cold weather in Florida, more cold weather…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":137023,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[47,53239,28,30,29,115,7153,628,221],"class_list":{"0":"post-137022","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-fl","9":"tag-fl-2","10":"tag-florida","11":"tag-florida-headlines","12":"tag-florida-news","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-polk","15":"tag-us","16":"tag-weather"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}