A very mild winter in Florida has Florida vegetables growing faster than normal, which could very well lead to spring truck shipments occurring sooner than usual.
For example, a bumper crop of spring bell peppers, is being forecast and could become available in mid-March, rather than its more normal start date of early April.
The Florida winter has been more like fall weather leading to larger plants and plans for high yields, which should translate into heavy shipments. Spring squash is another example of the benefits of favorable weather. Squash loadings from eastern Palm Beach County started in late February, as well as from southwest Florida near Fort Myers and in central Florida near Ruskin.
While squash supplies and loadings are not exceptionally heavy, this should change with increasing volume around the middle or end of March.
Shipments of strawberries from the Plant City area just west of Tampa continue. There have been some quality problems related to weather, but there’s also reports of some nice fruit being shipped. In other words, there are mixed reports and it probably depends upon which field the berries you are loading came from. Just a word of caution, and check the quality of strawberries waiting for you at the dock.
Central and South Florida veggies and strawberries – grossing about $2200 to Chicago.