PIERSON, Fla. – Many people tend to their backyard plants on cold nights, but in Pierson — known as the fern capital of the world — growers face the daunting task of protecting hundreds of acres of ferns from a looming freeze.
Local fern growers are working around the clock to shield their crops before Valentine’s Day. They ship ferns worldwide, but one fernery owner says what happens in the next few days could affect the entire year.
The younger crops, the most vulnerable to the cold, are currently growing for the Mother’s Day harvest.
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For these growers, this is their livelihood. Holidays like Valentine’s and Mother’s Day make up a huge part of their business.
“We’re right in the middle of doing all of the harvesting for it so every day that we have to have the water on and we can’t get people into the field to harvest, it puts us that much further behind,” said David Register with Fern Trust Incorporated.
Costs have skyrocketed over the last year — from fertilizer to labor to gas prices — making it more critical than ever for crops to survive. Register said foreign imports also pose a threat to local growers.
“A lot of the ferneries have been going out of business over the last five or ten years, so there’s a lot less acreage now than what there was,” Register said.
Using new technology, Register says they can monitor their 200 acres of ferns from Pierson to Putnam County.
“We can put one of these temperature sensors like this in that area and that allows us to monitor what the temperature is every 15 minutes. It sends a signal out and that goes to the internet so we can look on our phone,” he explained.
If the signal reads anything below 33 degrees, they use a pump to turn on water that warms the plants.
“You’re pretty well in bad shape if your pump cuts off in the middle of a freeze,” Register said.
Register said they don’t make employees work in freezing temperatures and while the water is running to avoid sickness. When it warms up, they will be ready to start harvesting.
How long the cold lasts could mean serious catch-up work before those key holidays.
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