Belleville, Ill (KSDK) -- The freeze warnings Tuesday night made some fruit growers nervous. At Eckert's in Belleville it was the strawberry patches at risk.

When the temperatures drop extremely low, there's a plan using lots of water to keep five-acres of strawberries protected.

It seems odd, but to keep 70,000 plants warm, farmers turn on an irrigation system late at night. The plants are then watered for several hours in the cold.

"The process of protecting them is the liquid freezing and then going from a liquid to a solid and that reaction gives off just a slight amount of heat and that's all we need to really protect the plant from any type of freezing injury," said president, Chris Eckert.

Newschannel 5 checked with several other places on both sides of the river that could have some concerns about their fruit and vegetable crops.  Just about everyone said they don't intend to run into problems as long as the temperature stays above 28 degrees.