04/10/08 Cherry Season

Cherry Season. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. All around we are starting to see fruit trees bud out and blossom and one of my favorites is the cherry tree. My tree in the front yard is barely starting to pop but according to BJ Thurlby with Northwest Cherries, this really is cherry season. THURLBY: This is the time of year when we are at our peak of activity preparing for the season that's soon to follow. This is also the time of year when the word "frost" is a four-letter word and it can mean some late nights or early mornings for cherry growers. THURLBY: The region certainly has been hit by more cold nights than we've seen quite a few years. A lot of growers here for 10 or 12 days were up and I still here wind machines running at night so we're still in the middle of frost season like any other year. And it really depends on orchard site, orchard location but there's certainly some people who have taken some hits on stone fruit relative to the buds that were on the trees before we got cold like this. Mother Nature may have set up the stone fruit industry last fall. THURLBY: Most of the scientific community in the state this fall and this winter during our winter meeting sessions had said the trees came out of the fall and really were going through the winter in what we would consider perfect condition. Because of the mild temperatures we had this fall, leaves stayed on the trees longer so we ended up with quite a few buds out there. So at this point were just looking at it as Mother Nature's way of helping us thin out our crop a little bit. More tomorrow on the upcoming cherry season. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.