A frosty night is in the forecast for much of the region. Local farmers are keeping close watch on conditions heading our way. As of 5 p.m. Wednesday, 17 counties in northern lower Michigan and the Eastern U-P are under a Frost Advisory for the overnight hours. That could affect more than just the plants on your front porch.
The month of May has been a stressful one for fruit farmers. Isaiah Wunsch with Wunsch Farms and Third Coast Fruit Company, says “The last few weeks have been pretty nerve-racking.”
“The cool, kind of damp weather we had during cherry bloom, extended the blossom period. Which was aesthetically pleasing, but it kept the bees locked down in their hives,” Wunsch says. On Old Mission Peninsula, that means the bees aren’t pollinating as much as they’d like. That’s already impacting the cherry crop. “The tart cherry crop is looking like 20-25% of crop so it’s a pretty significant loss on the tart cherry side, on Old Mission at least. And sweet cherries are probably somewhere between 50 to 70% of a full crop.”
On the other hand – the drier than normal weather is sometimes a bonus. “The quality of the cherries that did make it through will be really high. But it’s definitely going to be a little smaller crop than normal,” Wunsch says.
He is watching the overnight temps – but isn’t panicking. “I’m not too worried about another frost event at this point. Because we mostly grow cherries up on top of a hill so the temperature up here will be a little bit higher than it might be down in a low spot. We’re looking at a limited crop volume this year, but what we do have is not at risk tonight.”
And Wunsch says he’s already thinking ahead – trying to outsmart Mother Nature in the years to come. “We just planted a new sweet cherry orchard two weeks ago and instead of this one or two varieties of cherries we planted six different varieties… So if we do have ‘fluky’ weather, even if we lose one variety we will still come through with a good crop of several others.”
In Leelanau- Bardenhagen Berries has cherries – and strawberries. Steve Bardenhagen says, “We’ve had a lot of warm weather and we’ve had a lot of cold weather. Things are moving really quickly and then you have to stop. And then we are worried about frost.
“The strawberries are more at risk because as you can see in this fields there is straw on the ground. And straw insulates the heat that would naturally come out of the ground. When you have a really cold frosty clear night, it gets super cold in the strawberry patch.”
They’ll take extra steps to protect what they can. “We’re mainly concerned about frost, actual freezing temperatures often on the open blossoms. And what we can do is turn on irrigation and run water,” Steve says. His wife Pam adds, “We don’t sleep. We monitor the temperatures all night long and visit the fields multiple times – every hour or so – and watch for dropping temperatures. Once the temperature drops we turn on the irrigation.”
Steve says, “Strawberries are what we are most worried about because it will be the coldest at ground level. If the wind dies and it’s clear. …. in a low spot it can get 5 to 10 degrees below the ‘5 foot temperature’, which is what they report on the news.”
It’s another layer of stress for an already stressful time of year. “It is really stressful, you’re trying to get your labor lined up, the planting, and then also frost-protecting.”
In case you’re wondering about the grapes, we also talked with two of the vineyards on the old Mission Peninsula. They say, geographically, with water on both sides they are pretty well sheltered from the effects of a mild overnight frost.
On the web:
and
© 2023 - 910 Media Group
