Fruit growers keeping eye on weather

Hail, rain causing damage to crops

Regional fruit growers are anxiously watching the skies in anticipation of harvest in a couple weeks.

"The peak of our harvest will take off in ten days and rain still isn't a major issue in the Northwest," said B.J. Thurlby, president of the Washington State Fruit Commission, in an interview Wednesday. "But we are obviously really hoping for some sunny weather here as soon as we can get it."

Gip Redman, head of field services for C.M. Holtzinger in Yakima and Prosser, said that the weather has been affecting almost all varieties of fruit, especially those that his company deals with — cherries, pears and apples.

"It's been mainly the hail that's been doing all the damage, but the farther we get into this week and next week with rain, it's going to start having more impact on the cherries," Redman said. "Cherries split with too much rainwater on them. The closer we get to picking cherries, the more vulnerable they become."

Thurlby said one good thing about the cooler weather is that it has actually allowed the crops to separate out, after the warmer weather had everybody thinking that the districts like Mattawa and the Columbia Basin and Yakima Valley would be harvesting all at once.

"Mother Nature helped us out on that front, so we can continue to grow the crop and see it separate itself out," he said.

Thurlby said the past weeks have yielded what he called a "weird weather pattern," adding that hail has been really isolated, and occurred along the Snake River over the weekend. It's caused damage to apricots and other fruits that wouldn't be impacted by the rain, he said.

"For the growers that got hit, it's a tragedy, a big deal," he said. One grower called Thurlby and thought he might have lost 40 percent of his crop over the weekend. When Thurlby talked to him again on Monday, the grower said he might have lost 15 percent at the most.

But Thurlby said that the effect on the total crop has been slim. He estimated that there would be 11.5 to 12 million boxes produced overall.

"We don't feel we need to lower our crop estimate very much," he said. "We're still in that range."

Mattawa cherry farmer Hans Groenke said that his area has generally escaped any rain damage.

"There have been some reports of hail; that has had more significant impact than the rain has," Groenke said, noting that it's mostly apple growers that he's been talking to.

Still, Groenke said he has the lowest crop that he's seen in 34 years. He said he suspected the culprit might be the early cold weather in October, and a cold snap in November.

"The tissue that supports the buds may have been damaged, enough so that it wouldn't support the fruit as it begins to form," he said. "Statewide though, the crop is predicted to be of nicest crop quality. Excellent quality, adequate supplies."

Redman agreed with that sentiment.

"The ultimate outcome is there's still going to be a good crop of nice cherries," he said. "The growers are having adversity, and (it) will probably lead to better returns for what fruits do get to market, but they won't have a big crop to take."

Redman said that some growers are going to suffer very diminished returns because of higher cullage, while some growers may not be able to harvest cherries for the fresh market at all. They may be forced to go to freezers or juice, and neither one of those operations pay very well, he said.

"Apples and pears are just getting beat up, the crop is getting smaller," he said. "It will be a bigger crop than last year, but not close to a record like we once thought."