Bennett Orchards says cold snap could kill almost all their crop

FRANKFORD, Del. – With Thursday night’s temperatures potentially dropping into the mid-20’s Bennett Orchards may have a different problem to worry about aside from the current pandemic.

Henry Bennett says the cold snap could potentially kill 90% of their peaches if the weather gets down to 26 degrees. However, Bennett isn’t just sitting by doing nothing. He tells 47Abc that they called in a helicopter pilot to fly above the orchard to raise the temperature on the ground just a few degrees.

“Once temperatures hit 30 degrees we’re going to start flying and what that’s going to do is that’s going to take that cold air that sits down on the floor of the orchard and that’s going to mix it with the warm air that’s 30 to 40 feet above the tree’s and hopefully that will get you a couple of degree points higher,” Bennett said.

Although Bennett says this isn’t the first time they’ve called in a helicopter, it also isn’t a common occurrence. We’re told the last time they did this was 2009.