Cherry Analysis Pt 2
With today’s Fruit Grower Report, I’m Bob Larson. From extreme heat to untimely cold, last year’s weather was one of 2021’s biggest challenges.
NW Cherry Growers president, BJ Thurlby says given the timing of the record high temps at the end of June, it was a decent year for cherries, but moving forward …
THURLBY … “Now, we’re kind of looking at the winter and we’ve had a, from a grower’s perspective, I think a pretty good winter. I mean, it’s been quite cold some days, but it got cold very slowly, and that’s good news for not just cherries, but apples and pears.”
So far, Thurlby says we’ve had a nice build up to the cold and the recent snows are not a bad thing …
THURLBY … “I mean, the snow goes in and protects the trees and kind of puts everything further to sleep. And then, of course, ends up being water in the spring and summer which is also important. So, we’re happy with our snowpack and at this point, I think everybody’s just hoping for the best and thinking we’ve still got a good crop on the trees out there.”
But for this year, Thurlby says it’s hard to say …
THURLBY … “In the cherry business, because it’s, that’s your high-risk fruit of all the fruits, you just never know. So, that’s one of the things we’re looking at, what is last year’s heat going to do to the trees coming into this year. You know, we’re really hoping that we end up with a nice sized crop of great cherries and we see temperatures that stay below 90 and push right through the season. That would be the immaculate season for us. That would be the perfect scenario. So, we’ll see.”
Thurlby says the impact of the heat on the trees is the biggest “wait and see,” but so far things are looking pretty good.
