Rain Rain

Rain, Rain. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. If you are cherry grower you know that rain at the right time of the year is crucial to a good crop but at harvest it can ruin you. That has been the problem for a number of growers especially in the southern part of the state. THURLBY: As of yesterday the growers have reported really not too much loss, maybe 10% from the rain we had this weekend but still the cherries if you look. I mean they're just still green in a lot of our growing districts so the rain isn't going to be an issue in all growing districts but it's certainly I'm afraid going to be an issue in our southern districts where you are seeing helicopters fly today. BJ Thurlby with NW Cherries says for the most part the Chelan cherries have been wiped out. THURLBY: You know there are some Chelan's planted in the mid season that are still okay but not very many. You know the Chelan is specifically a targeted cherry for the early market and we've pretty much seen that whole crop go away. Cool weather and heavy rain are to blame for those losses but as for other varieties... THURLBY: A few cherries were run yesterday but I'm guessing with the rain last night that we probably won't see a lot of people running cherries today. I'm guessing we'll probably get more up and running tomorrow or Friday with some of the early, early stuff in our warmest districts but overall we're not going yet and that little rain we had last night is not helping anything. You know the good news is it happened at night, it has stayed fairly cool so I'm guessing if they can get their orchard blown off, probably be okay.