Cherries Running Late Again

Cherries Running Late Again. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

2011 seems to be a bit of a rerun of 2010 when it comes to the cherry season. Gip Redman with the Oregon Cherry Growers says things are again running behind.

REDMAN: Very much similar to last year starting off with being early by mid-February we were already early and by early into March we could see that we were actually farther ahead at that time than we were last year and last year was early. Then it turned off cool last year and ditto again this year. And we’re behind now.

And of course that means the cherry season will again be pushed later in the year by a few weeks.

REDMAN: We were running fairly early. We lost some time during bloom but we were still early going into May. This year we’re not. Last year May was cold and was what really held things back. We’ll have to see what this year does. If May is more normal then I think we will end up between normal and late by a week or so. Right now my guess is we’re off at least a week from normal. Maybe more. Maybe 10 days.

Frost has not played a big factor as of yet since there has been enough wind at night to keep frost down but there have already been a few reports of some light damage especially in the Yakima Valley. More tomorrow on the 2011 cherry crop.

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