Cherries Starting Soon

Cherries Starting Soon. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

Spring came creeping in last week and showed itself over the weekend with some nice weather in parts of the northwest and now some spring rain has asserted itself this week. But all those things are helping to get the 2014 cherry season off to a great start and provided we can skip any frost damage and that all the other aligning of the planets happens, we could see a good crop according to NW Cherries, BJ Thurlby.

THURLBY: There’s nothing too far out of the ordinary. It’s a nice spread between all the different growing regions which we’d like to see instead of - you know in 2009 we had a 50-day season. We’d like to see a 90-day season. So we like to see that spread in those growing degree days and right now that’s kind of where it’s pointing to. Now, of course Mother Nature could have any number of things lined up for us down the road and we’ll cross those bridges when we have to but right now thing s look great.

Thurlby says they have been keeping their eyes on how the other cherry growing regions have been shaping up.

THURLBY: One last piece I would tell you that’s worth sharing to my growers here in the northwest would be, it appears California cherry growers - they’ve already been through bloom in the early districts down in Kern county. They bloomed right in the range of 7-10 days ahead which is good. That’s good for us. We like to see a limited overlap when their season is ending in the middle or first part of June and ours is gearing up so right now it appears that California is even earlier than we are. We certainly hope the best for the California contingent but at the same time it looks like they are early which I think bodes well.

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