As fruit buds swell, B.C. farmers hit by 2024 deep freeze hope for better harvest [Video]

Peter Simonsen says buds on the peach trees at his farm in Naramata, B.C., are already starting to swell early. 

But that makes him nervous.

“They seem healthy and good, but I’m a little worried, because it’s been very similar to last year,” he said, referring to the warm spell last winter that preceded a catastrophic cold snap that decimated crops across the Okanagan and elsewhere in British Columbia.

“And if you look at the fruit buds, they are starting to swell a little bit. They are breaking their dormancy, which is way too early for that to be happening.”

This week marks one year since the deep freeze that sent temperatures plummeting to about -30 C in some fruit-growing regions.

With plants already budding because of the previous warmth, a year’s worth of crops, including peaches and nectarines, were wiped out, along with the vast majority of cherries, and grapes used in B.C. wines. …