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Valley vegetable growers prepare to protect crops from freezing temperatures

By: Sarah Cervera

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Vegetable farmers in the Rio Grande Valley are bracing for below freezing temperatures that are expected to last between 10 and 12 hours starting late Tuesday night.

"If we can't make it past this freeze, it can be a detriment to my families and the families that come to harvest this crop,” Mike Helle said.

Helle has been farming for 12 years at Green Gold Farms in Edinburg. He said he is most worried about the effect the freezing temperatures will have on his 60 acres of onions he planted back in october.

“We can have some internal decay if it freezes and hurts the heart of the onion,” Helle said.

To prepare for the cold weather, Helle said a tractor sprayed liquid copper on top of all of the crops, and they also watered them with warm canal water.

“We put a bit of copper on them, it's like a vitamin to help the onions fight off the freeze,” Helle said.

In San Juan, Rio Fresh Farms Inc. Irrigation Manager Andres Hernandez said the company has been hard at work watering over 3,000 acres of over 30 different vegetables such as onions, beats and celery.

“We try to get it soaking wet so that way the roots can hold the moisture we have been doing for the last seven days,” Hernandez said, adding that the water acts like an insulator for the plants during the freeze. 

Hernandez said there are plans to fly four helicopters above their 80 acres of celery to act as a heater.

“The warm air is going up, and the helicopters are going to push the warm air back to the plants and keep the air circulating,” Hernandez said.

Helle said each of his acres of onions are worth about $10,000, and that a big freeze would set him, his family, and workers back.

Watch the video above for the full story. 

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