Is there anything sweeter than the fresh baby-pink or whitish cherry blooms in spring? Maybe the fruit that follows.
But this year there could be a few less of those scrumptious, sweet, Northwest orbs.
“I think it was really last week [March 30] when we really started to realize how bad the damage was,” said Per McCord, a cherry breeder at Washington State University’s Prosser irrigated ag center. “It varies a little bit, but at my main location I would say we’re on average well over 90% [lost].”
That means McCord’s research will be hampered for the entire year.
Warm temperatures this spring that teased open the tight and more cold-hardy buds, was followed by freezing temperatures in both Washington and Oregon, shocking many cherry blooms and killing them before they were able to be pollinated. The flowers and buds turn brown in parts, days after they’re frozen, showing the damage. Farmers are still assessing how much they’ve lost across both states.
“I’ve walked a whole bunch of orchards,” said farmer Jim Keller, of Cowiche, Wash. “But it’s spotty. My upper valley – Tieton and Cowiche – cherries have a lot of damage, but in Royal City and Zillah, I don’t have much damage.”
A warmer winter may have also made the buds less cold hardy overall, he said. And there could be more widespread damage in Washington.
Mown-down ‘grass
The freezing temperatures also mowed down many early asparagus fields right before Easter. The holiday is typically when asparagus farmers sell the most of their vegetables all year.
Some of the worst cold temperatures happened in late March on the 27th and 30th.
“Mexico was out of the market, and the only place there was asparagus was in Washington and then we had back-to-back freezes,” said farmer and executive director of the Washington Asparagus Commission, Alan Schreiber. “Everyone thought there were record prices, and everyone was ready to go.”
There is no frost protection for asparagus, he explained. Farmers can’t afford to protect the crop the entire season so when frost hits it only takes down a few days of crop production. Cherry farmers can protect their entire crop, but it’s expensive to run propane heaters and fans. Sometimes they have to decide to use them on just one or two really cold nights, he said.
“When asparagus freezes it stops the plant from sending up spears for about a week, and we missed the Easter market,” he said.
Everyone is screaming for asparagus. We’re back!Alan Schreiber
But now, the ‘grass is back. Schreiber said that asparagus farmworkers have cleaned up the fields, by cutting away the damaged spears. Now, with more moderate temperatures, newly emerged spears are being cut for market.
“We just started packing today [Friday],” he said. “We weren’t going to do it until Monday, but everyone is screaming for asparagus. We’re back!”
There will be about 3,000 acres of fresh asparagus cut in Washington state this year, yielding 13.5 million pounds, Schreiber said. That’s a fraction compared to 30,000 acres that used to be harvested in 1990, when farmers produced about 100 million pounds. Many of the asparagus-processing plants like Del Monte and Green Giant started sourcing their asparagus from Peru, Schreiber said.
Washington cherry woes
Some cherry trees might have only lost a percentage of their bloom but can still produce good fruit.
Still, there could be less overall fruit this year, said Matthew Whiting, another researcher and a professor at WSU in Prosser. He thinks many farmers in the industry will be OK.
“You might back off of any thinning strategies you might have been thinking about. If you still had pruning to do, you might be a little less aggressive, you might leave a bit more wood in those trees,” he said. “With half a normal quantity of flowers, there’s been great fruit set conditions that would still lead to a reasonably high, or a full crop.”
Sweet cherry orchardists were already facing challenging times and markets. The price for their crops hasn’t increased much over the past several years, but the cost of things like labor, diesel and fertilizer have sharply risen. So, producing less fruit could hurt bottom lines.
“It’s increasingly challenging,” Whiting said. “There is no doubt that cherry farms around the region, around the Northwest, have struggled in the last few years.”
Oregon calls
In Oregon, some sweet cherry growers are getting calls from Washington fieldmen who scout for fruit for packing warehouses, said cherry farmer Ian Chandler, of The Dalles.
“There is a decent amount of damage up in Washington, and they’re looking for fruit down here,” he said.
Most of Chandler’s cherries are on hillsides above the Columbia River with good air drainage, so much of his 150-acre crop has survived – except in the “frost holes,” in the lower lying blocks, he said. There, he lost up to 40% of his bloom.
Chandler said he usually holds about 20% of his fruit aside to sell into opportunity markets each year.
“There is an inherent risk [in growing cherries],” he said. “This is a fragile crop in many ways. It’s also high input – everything you need to get it grown.”
Chandler said his industry is also struggling because of not having enough workers.
If you like gambling, I guess, become a cherry farmer.Ian Chandler
Chandler said on this particular fresh morning, he was just about to meet with another Washington fruit packing company fieldman out looking for Oregon fruit.
“It’s a pretty dynamic situation and there are a lot of things you can get tripped up on like labor, weather and input prices,” he said. “Outside our control is the weather – if you like gambling, I guess, become a cherry farmer.”