NW Cherry's Optimism

Keep your fingers crossed. That is the official advice from NW Cherries BJ Thurlby. And it is very sound advice since last years cherry crop started out much in the same way. Thurlby says though that right now...things are looking good for NW cherries.

THURLBY: Spring weather conditions up here in the Northwest have been optimal. It hasn't been too hot but it hasn't been too cold and when we have years like this we see the trees actually bloom all at once which is a good thing. In recent years we've had years where half the tree will bloom and seven days later the other half will bloom and that causes nothing but problems for my growers. From a standpoint of weather, warmth, good bloom weather, bee activity from start to finish - we're still blooming in higher elevations, it's been optimal.

Thurlby relays what growers in the region are saying.

THURLBY: There's a good set and some many early districts have seen cherries come out on their trees but overall I'm also hearing there's fewer flowers per bud and when we see years like that we end up a lot of times seeing cherries really well spaced throughout the tree which is a good thing but not as many that we've had in some years. And what I'm hearing from a lot of growers is we're not seeing as much fruit on the trees as we saw in 2012.

That being said...

THURLBY: We're seeing more than we saw in 2013 and that's a good thing because that was a very short crop. We only packed 14-million boxes from that standpoint I think it's a positive thing for the consumer and for the grower and I love win-wins and we all do.

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