Tree Fruit Outlook Part 2

Tree Fruit Outlook Part 2. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

The 2011 tree fruit season is starting out much the same as last year and that means a late crop again of cherries, pears, apricots and apples. Washington State Horticultural Association’s Bruce Grimm has a bit of a chuckle over the cherry industry.

GRIMM: Cherries are that (laughs) that weird fruit where I mean whatever strange can happen, can happen with cherries. Certainly I think the impact of that November freeze and the late February one - those were not helpful. We were seeing from the November freeze some browning of cambium tissue. Obviously some concern about how that would all work itself out because cherries, it seems like a whole range of things can happen.

He says they can really mislead growers when it comes to situations like this.

GRIMM: The cherries will bloom normally, will look great and when the shuck falls the little fruit will fall right along with it. Or not. The fruitlet will there, it will begin to develop and fall off later. It can get clear to pit hardening and you can have a cherry about the size of your little fingernail and it turns red and fall off. Or they can all set and you have gobs and gobs of very, very small cherries

And of course if everything goes as planned you wind up with a normal crop of wonderful cherries.

GRIMM: When it comes to cherries almost anything can happen and about everything in that range is forecast by somebody out there.

Other than when they come off the trees they are really delicious. More tomorrow.

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