Farm Scene – Despite cold spells, Michigan?s fruit crop, farmers generally doing well

?We don?t breathe real easy until after Memorial Day,? said Rennhack, the owner of a Hart orchard and farm market that bear his family name.

Michigan is a national leader in the production of apples, blueberries, wine and juice grapes, and tart and sweet cherries. Most of the state?s $275 million fruit crop is grown within about 20 miles of Lake Michigan, because of its moderating effect on the weather, and in southernmost Michigan.

Rennhack, whose operation in Oceana County is about eight miles from the lake, said a spell of frigid weather in early February and several nights of freezing temperatures in early April damaged most of his sweet cherry blossoms.

The early February cold snap in the Lower Peninsula sent temperatures plummeting to near or below zero in many areas, shocking fruit-bearing trees.

?If it had been part of a longer cold stretch, or if the whole winter had been cold, it wouldn?t have hurt us any, but we were at the point where many of the plants were thinking that spring was just around the corner when it got real cold,? said Mark Longstroth, the Michigan State University Extension office?s district fruit educator for southwestern Michigan.

Rennhack said even though he lost more than two-thirds of his cherry blossoms, growers never want 100 percent of any fruit to remain on their trees ? it generally hurts size and flavor. So he?s optimistic about salvaging a good crop of sweet cherries when it comes time to harvest them in July.

Rennhack grows 120 acres of fruit, including 30 acres of his most important crop, honeycrisp apples, which blossom later than his sweet cherries and were not affected by the cold weather.

?They look very good right now,? he said.

Longstroth said some fruit growers have had freeze damage to their cherries, peaches and grapes.

While it?s still too early in the season to know how much of the juice grape crop has been lost, the figures won?t come close to approaching the losses suffered in 2006. A late April freeze last year nearly wiped out the state?s entire crop.

?We?ve had damage to grapes, but not near as bad as last year,? said Longstroth. ?There?s still a viable crop in many places.?

Some growers were hit hard but much of the crop damage was related to the variety, location and altitude of the fruit being grown. Generally, the farther inland from Lake Michigan, the greater the likelihood of damage, particularly to early blossoming varieties of grapes, cherries, apples, peaches and raspberries, he said.

?In Berrien County, where they grow lots of peaches and grapes, there was much less damage than there was in the Kalamazoo area,? Longstroth said.

To the north, the Grand Rapids-area apple crop appear to be unharmed, as do the blueberries produced in Allegan, Ottawa and Van Buren counties and the strawberries grown in the biggest-producing counties of Berrien, Leelanau and Van Buren.

At Nye?s Apple Barn near St. Joseph, owner Jacquie Nye said some early varieties of her peaches blossomed even sooner than usual because of the warm spell preceding the early April freeze. She said she grows 11 acres of peaches at her orchard.

?We have lost some peaches but that?s mainly the only crop that we know for sure that we have probably had some loss,? she said. ?We?re pretty lucky because we?re so close to Lake Michigan, about two miles. We didn?t get as cold as a lot of people did.?

Longstroth said he has heard from a few unfortunate growers who may end up losing most of their fruit in 2007. Overall, however, the state?s fruit producers are likely to fare better this year than some of their brethren to the south, where many more varieties were much further along in the growing cycle when the cold weather hit.

?I think we?re lucky,? he said, adding that the damage was much more severe in states including Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, North Carolina and Alabama. ?Those guys don?t have any tree fruit.?