— A strange growing season, as farmers have described it, isn’t over just yet.

This past weekend, mountain farmers faced more freezing temperatures, which took another swipe at crops that are still blooming.

Terry Kelley, the director and tree fruit agent for Henderson County, said an exceptionally warm February caused crops to jump out a lot quicker than farmers wanted them to.

Cooler temperatures returned in March and now April, damaging many of the blooms that were already out.

“Every little cold snap tends to chip away at things,” Kelley said.

Kelley said it’s one of those situations where farmers are just going to have to wait and see what kind of crop they end up having. He said farmers are fortunate that temperatures this past weekend didn't drop as low as they have in the past.

Kelley said temperatures remained around the 30-degree mark, which was a bit lower than farmers would have liked but not quite down to the critical range.

What’s more concerning around this time of year, Kelley said, is the frost that comes from those freezing temperatures. He said the frost crystals that form on the trees can damage the tender bloom materials.

“It can hurt the quality, which is something we keep an eye on,” Kelley said.

He said many of the county's apple growers will probably not be sleeping until this next month is past.

While Kelley said their peach crop took a major hit in those early freezes, he feels like they’re okay in terms of apples right now.

But, he said the jury is still out a bit to see how these fruits really set onto the trees to see what kind of crop they’re actually going to have.

Kelley said it only takes 20% of the blooms that come out to pollinate and make an apple to have a full crop, so they can take a little bit of chipping away and still come out OK.

“We still have a lot of hope of having a fairly decent crop this year,” he said.

There are growers in the county, Kelley said, who have frost protection for their apples and that protection definitely came in handy over the weekend.

One of those growers is Mike Stepp, who runs Stepp’s Hillcrest Orchard in Henderson County.

Stepp said he knew the warm weather in February would bring problems down the road. He said they’re just having to deal with the damage the best they can.

Stepp said, luckily, he only saw a few blooms that had been affected by the frost over the weekend. He credits that to his wind machines, which keep the air moving and prevent the dew from forming so that there isn’t frost.

“You know God's given us what we got and we’ve still got apples, so we’re thankful,” Stepp said.

Kelley said that every day that passes, the chance of getting a damaging freeze lessens.

The “sweet spot,” he explained, will be Mother’s Day.

Once Mother’s Day hits, Kelley said farmers can be confident their crops have made it through the worst of any freezing weather.

STORY & PHOTO COURTESY OF ABC 13 WLOSWhen it comes to freezes, Henderson County farmers say they're not out of the woods yet | WLOS