Crazy up and down temperatures has Linvilla Orchards farm manager Norm Schultz frantically trying to save the orchard’s peach and other crops, writes Pete Bannan for the Daily Times.

Temperatures hit 75 degrees over a mid-March weekend, causing peach blossoms to bloom early, then it plummeted to 20 degrees just a few days later.

The wild swing in temperature are continuing in April and threaten Linvilla’s peach blossoms with overnight lows below freezing.

Schutz and his crew have been burning fires on the coldest mornings to protect blossoms that came out early.

So far, loss has been kept to a minimum at less than 10 percent.

“We knew we wouldn’t save all the flowers with this system,” Schultz said. “But they looked good right now.”

Normally the ground would be frozen, keeping the tree asleep until constant warmer temperatures would cause the blossoms to bloom safely, usually between April 5 and 10, Schultz said.

“(We) had a really hot Saturday a couple weeks ago, 75, and there is no frost in the ground anymore with the warm winters,” Schultz said..

The orchard won’t know the extent of any damage the blossoms sustained until mid-June.

Read more about the impact of temperature swings on Linvilla’s produce yield in the Daily Times.