As if the coronavirus pandemic wasn’t already putting a hammerlock on many businesses across the region, the cold overnight temperatures of the past week are starting to take a toll on certain fruit crops in Michigan’s Great Southwest.
I reached out to Michigan State University Fruit Educator Mark Longstroth for a quick analysis on the current situation Thursday evening and his first words were, “Pat, we were hurt.”
Looking ahead to this morning, he said, “I am going out to look tomorrow,” and adds that it’s hard to tell until the buds have thawed and the dead tissue turns brown and dries out. Longstroth says, “We are about a week ahead of our long-term average for crop development, and with global warming our bloom dates have moved earlier in time.”
Looking at the cold, Mark says, “This three-day spell has hit hard,” adding, “We got down to 32 to 26 Tuesday night, 29 to 27 Wednesday, and 20 to 25 this morning (Thursday, April 16th). The last one really hurt.”
Looking at individual crops, Longstroth says that grapes were just starting and will be fine, however, apricots and Japanese plums were in bloom and would have been burnt by 28 degree weather and devastated by 25-degrees.
Additionally, cherries were at swollen bud and bud break. They would be hurt by 26 degree temperatures and would be “hammered” by 22-degree weather. Apples were at what is called “half inch,” meaning that 23 degree readings would hurt, while temperatures down to 21 would end up devastating them. The peach crop is at the red calyx stage, which means temperatures at the 23-degree range would hurt them and a drop to around 9 degrees would kill most of them. Longstroth says some peach blooms were at first pink.
Summing it up, Longstroth says, “I will know more later, but my guess is cherries have been hurt, but apples and peaches still have enough flowers for a good crop.”
He later got back to me with an update saying, “So cherries are probably hurt, but not our major crop just part of the mix that most fruit growers have to spread their risk. We still have the potential to have a good crop of peaches and apples which are important in Berrien County, and grapes were not hurt.” He concludes, “We will know more when we look at a lot of buds in a lot of orchards.”
The photo accompanying this story on Moody on the Market is for illustration purposes only and does not depict an actual cherry tree branch in Southwest Michigan.
