Cherries Begin Harvesting

Cherries Begin Harvesting

Cherries Begin Harvesting. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

Cherry producers have been sitting on the edge of their seats for the last week or so as wet weather has been threatening some growing regions and according to BJ Thurlby, president of Northwest Cherries there was some damage.

THURLBY: We have received some damage in our early districts. The high side we are hearing is 10 to 15%. Most of the damage is on the Chelan variety cherry which is our earliest variety cherry. I have some growers out there that have seen some cracking in some earlier Bing blocks and maybe a few early Rainier blocks - it’s pretty minimal so far so right now we think we still have a full crop in the northwest.

But good news is that harvest is underway.

THURLBY: I think we all hoped for a little better kickoff. You know as of today we have shipped 12-thousand boxes as an industry which is again a start...a little bit into the system but by this weekend we’re going to be earnestly into harvest.

The wet weather can be devastating for cherries when they are getting close to being ripe especially when a rain is followed by sunshine and warm temperatures which cause cherries to swell and crack. Cool, cloudy weather here in the northwest has kept the splitting down to a minimum.

THURLBY: You saw a lot of the weather that was associated with that rain, it was 48 degrees. I think the cracking was minimized on a lot of fronts. It could have been worse.

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

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