04/24/08 Orchard growers assess frost impacts

To say this has been a cool spring in Idaho is an understatement. RIPPEY "All throughout the Northwest big concerns for fruit crops." That's USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey talking about the hard freeze that hit Idaho and the Northwest earlier this week. Growers say they did have damage. SYMMS "There's a few cold spots where we probably lost the crop but for the most part where we've looked we still have a crop left even though there's a lot of dead blossoms." Dar Symms at the Symms Fruit Ranch at Sunnyslope says there's been one saving grace in all of this; the trees haven't all blossomed because of the cool conditions. SYMMS "Normal bloom date for cherries is about the 15th or 16th of April. They're not even close yet. Peaches are the 12th of April and they're not even full blown yet so we are very behind and for the most part that does help." Symms says with readings on Tuesday in the low 20's he's seen some damage to some of their trees. Other growers are reporting cherry and apricot losses. Symms says it could have been worse; it could have been a repeat of last year's killer frost. SYMMS "We had the shortest apple crop we've had in years. We had a third of the cherry crop. All of that happened either April 11th or 12th." The National Weather Service says May 10th is usually the last day that growers have to worry about a hard frost in southwestern Idaho. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott