Elizabeth Sanders LaFleur

elafleur@greenvillenews.com

Peach lovers rejoice! South Carolina's 2016 peach season could be the best in years, according to experts from Clemson University.

Andy Rollins, A Clemson University Extension agent, says despite a warmer and wetter than usual fall, South Carolina peach trees still got in all of the necessary chilling hours to make a strong crop.

Chilling hours are the number of hours peach trees have in temperatures below 45 degrees, a necessary part of the growing process. Peach trees in South Carolina require 800 to 1,000 chilling hours, according to Rollins.

While ideal weather conditions didn't pose a threat to this year's crop, Rollins says insects and diseases are always a risk. To help farmers keep their crops healthy, Clemson offers an app called IPM. It became available for iOS in Spring 2015. The app offers farmers assistance in identifying diseases as well as tips on chemical and non-chemical ways to treat them.

According to Clemson University, South Carolina produces the second largest peach crop in the United States. According to the United States Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Statistics Service, South Carolina produced 69,000 tons of peaches in 2015. California produced the most and Georgia came in as the third largest producer of peaches in 2015.