The Blog

Valoria Loveland, Director of Department of Agriculture

05/02/08

Some of Washington’s most productive orchards were hit by unseasonably cold weather in April. At the governor’s request, I headed to the Yakima Valley and the Columbia Basin this week to survey the damage and talk to some of the impacted producers.

The good news is that we are still expecting an average cherry crop in Washington. The marketing experts I talked to believe that we are right on the 5-year average of fruit volume. My colleagues at the Fruit Commission will continue to watch the situation closely. We should have an even more accurate estimate in a couple of weeks.

The not so good news is that the cold weather has hit some individual growers hard. The freeze withered some of those beautiful, delicate cherry blossoms before they could do their job. No fruit will develop on those trees. While losses are spotty across the region, some orchard blocks were a total loss.

Orchardists know that growing cherries is a risky business. A cold spring is only one of the risks. Now we need to hope for warmer weather so the bees can get active pollinating the blossoms. As the fruit begins to develop, we need adequate moisture and proper temperatures to ensure large, juicy fruit. But as we get closer to harvest, we want to avoid any rain or hail that could split or damage the delicate ripening cherries. It’s not a business for the risk adverse.

But the result of this stressful process is undeniable. We grow the highest quality sweet cherries found anywhere in the world. I can almost taste my first juicy Washington Bing Cherry of the season!