03/07/07 Gearing Up

Gearing up. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. Gip Redman, field man with Holtzinger's is soon going to be a very busy person as will all growers in the northwest. Spring is only a couple of weeks away. REDMAN: This is usually the time that people start feeling the pressure. Generally the weather is starting to change and we're putting the final touches or getting into a panic about getting pruning done and planting and this year is really not much different than any other year that way except that I think at this time we're running a little late. The ground just recently unfroze maybe a couple of weeks ago so we're just starting to see some movement in the trees themselves. Looking into his crystal ball, Redman doesn't see much in the way of problems for the tree fruit industry&other than the labor issue. REDMAN: Some cherry varieties are not available and maybe that's a blessing. There's certainly a lot of planting going on and we're going to see great increases in cherry cuttings. I am impressed by a lot of growers pruning harder than they have in the last couple of years, that'll help insure some size. So that remain a little bit of concern, it goes hand in hand with the labor issue. Apples seem to be set up to have a nice crop. I don't we're ever going to see anything really small, below 90 million; there's just too many acres of high density fruit in the ground now. But I'm not expecting a mind blower like 110 or what ever. That's just kind of what I'm seeing out there. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.