2011 Cherry Outlook

Cherry Outlook. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

One of the first crops to really get going in the spring is the cherry crop. Last year was a tough year and BJ Thurlby is optimistic that this year will be better.

THURLBY: So we’re just getting ready to kick her off and get the ball rolling. This is going to be one of those crops that we’re probably not really going to know what we have until we             pick it. You know we had the cold weather in November             where it got down to 16 below in some places, 6 below in others. That was the earliest cold spell, that cold that we’ve had in the last 50 years.

What has that done to the cherry trees?

THURLBY: You know people are looking at their buds, the buds are looking okay. What we’ve got is we’ve got some areas that seem to have some tissue damage that are kind of right behind the buds and some years that doesn’t make any difference at all and other years it does so it’s just one of those things where I think a lot of growers are probably a little nervous just because we’re trying o figure out “was there damage to my trees?”

Orchardists are watching the weather.

THURLBY: Degree days are about normal in the Tri-Cities and in the Yakima Valley and then up north they’re behind significantly so it looks like we’re seeing a spread in the crop. The question is will we get going quick enough to get the Fourth of July loaded up and that’s a question every year and what I hope we do. I hope we get picking in that first week in June and get the ball rolling early and have a good sell through over that Fourth of July weekend.

More tomorrow.

That’s today’s Fruit Grower Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.