Cherry Outlook Pt 1

Cherry Outlook Pt 1

Bob Larson
Bob Larson
With today's Fruit Grower Report, I'm Bob Larson. If you've been outside in the past few months, you know the weathers been a little less than typical. As a result, cherry growers are a week or two behind schedule for the year ...

THURLBY ... "The cold February definitely pushed our season back and it's, we're expecting our startup this year to be around June 10th. Normal startup would be June 1st, right in that area. You know, and then some years when we have real mild winters, we'll start in late May. But this year it's going to be right around June 10th."

Late start or not, Northwest Cherry Growers president BJ

Thurlby says it didn't hurt the crop much if at all ...

THURLBY ... "We are seeing, I would say, and average, moderate size crop and for us, you know, that's in the range of 23, 22-million boxed, 20-pound boxes. But, that's a big crop. That's enough cherries to treat the world for a couple of months and that's what we expect to do."

But, Thurlby says this recent stretch of warm weather has been great ...

THURLBY ... "It's been that kind of May and we're loving it. We're just absolutely loving it. I mean, two years ago we had the coldest May on record and we pretty much know where the sugar levels are and the sugar levels overall were just a tad down in 2017 and, you know, every grower said it never got above 60 degrees in May, that's why. So, we're not worried about that this year. We were expecting to have lots of sugar in this fruit so it should be excellent."

Tune in tomorrow for more on this year's Northwest Cherry outlook.

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