07/10/06 First the Rain, then the Hail

First the rain, then the hail. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. Fruit growers in Eastern Washington had been looking forward to record crops this year. Seems Mother Nature had other ideas. First as the cherry harvest was about to begin, so did the rains. Several growers lost most of their crops in the Mid-Columbia area but overall the loss was minimal. The came the hail and many areas were hit hard. Gip Redman is a fieldman for Holtzinger who faired pretty well. REDMAN: So far, our growers have been in areas where we've managed to duck some of the damage that's been caused by the hail. The industry got hit pretty hard in the Dayton, Chelan area and I think to some part Manson also. I had reports from growers that got hurt pretty bad in that area, big hail. And so when it came down, it really tore stuff up. So the crops I think are getting smaller or continues anyway to get smaller. Redman says that not only apples and pears were damaged but the cherry crop would suffer even more. REDMAN: We've been suffering through a pretty messy cherry crop from the standpoint of a lot of splits, sunburn, wind damage that have made the pack outs less than we'd like to see&less than the grower would like to see but the industry has been slugging through it. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.