Georgia peach growers are getting their 2024 harvest underway with expectations of a bumper crop after a dismal 2023.

Last year, a warmer-than-normal winter and a late-spring freeze wiped out nearly all the state’s overall production.

University of Georgia Extension agent Jeff Cook said a normal season will produce about 2.5 million bushel boxes of peaches.

But this year, it could be closer to 3 million bushel boxes.

“We had a cooler February and plants bloomed a little more normally,” he said. “Things just lined up and we didn’t have a mid-March freeze. We had a couple close calls.”

Cook says peaches should start to arrive at roadside stands in the coming weeks. But it could take until June for the fresh-picked fruits to arrive in larger markets.

“I think people are ready for a Georgia peach,” Cook said. “I know my family was when I brought a few home last week.”

Despite Georgia being known as the Peach State, it’s actually behind South Carolina and California in peach production.

It was an $80 million crop in the 2022 Georgia Farm Gate report.

Middle Georgia’s Peach, Taylor and Macon counties led the state in production.

This story comes to Rough Draft via a media partnership with GPB News.