06/01/07 Dealing With The Heat

Dealing with the Heat. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. Cherry season is rapidly approaching in the northwest but over the past several days temperatures have been soaring. Record high temperatures have been recorded in some areas. And while the high temps can be detrimental to animals and people working outside, fruit trees like cherries love it. WILLIS: Heat is good in that it helps the cherries gain some sugar solids. It ripens and brings some of the brix into the cherry. Andrew Willis with the Northwest Cherry Growers. WILLIS: You know that one of the things that makes the Northwest such a great place to grow cherries is we have a nice cool winter. We get some good cooling hours and we have nice warm summers and warm summers where it still gets cool at night and that's one of the big things for cherries so it's just part of the perfect growing climate we have here for growing cherries. He says there is another benefit as well. WILLIS: It also sometimes helps to move our season up so that we harvest our crop a little earlier which is good from a marketing point of view. Willis says there is a point where the heat can be too much for the fruit and when that happens farmers use several techniques to bring the temperatures back down. WILLIS: It's actually a good thing. We're looking for that this time of year it helps get the fruit ready for harvest. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.