2008 Michigan fruit crop estimates, early reports

A place to collect fruit crop damage reports for 2008. Today is the 53rd Annual Fruit Crop Guesstimate, sponsored by the Michigan Frozen Food Packers Association, will be June 18, at 2 p.m. at the Amway Grand Hotel, in Grand Rapids; when those reports come in for real I'll post them.

UPDATE: Guesstimate results are in - details here, too long to post, at Fruit Growers News:

Poor Weather Has Cut Size of Most U.S. Fruit Crops

June 19, 2008 - By Dick Lehnert
Managing Editor

Crummy spring weather coast to coast has reduced the production for most fruit crops. The word “record” was used only once – for blueberries – during the 53rd annual Fruit Crop Guesstimate.

The Guesstimate, sponsored by the Michigan Frozen Food Packers Association and attended by more than 150 people from across North America, was held June 18 in Grand Rapids, Mich.

Many of the presenters adjusted their PowerPoint presentations as they were making them, reflecting continuing poor weather. New York has hit by a hail storm of “epic proportions” on June 16, and the June drop, delayed and prolonged by cool weather that slowed crop development, was still taking apples and peaches from trees across the northern states.

June 18: Traverse City cherry crop damage

"It's just completely trashed," Williams said of the small tract of cherry trees along Bright Road south of Maple City. "You can see how it took the leaves down and everything ... it stripped (the cherries) right off the trees."

The hail that pelted Williams' fruit trees marked the latest episode in a series of nature-related setbacks blamed for damaging the region's cherry crop. This year's harvest is shaping up as the worst since the nearly cherry-less summer of 2002, experts said.

June 10: Southern Leelenau apple crop

Orchards were damaged last week when temperatures dropped as low as the mid-20s, but farms in the northern half of the county – above the 45th Parallel – weren’t hit quite so hard, said Nikki Rothwell, director of the Northwest Michigan Horticultural Resource Station.

“I think there is significant damage out there. We can’t put a number on it but we’ve got poor pollination on top of a freeze event,” she said.

Apples were hit hardest by early morning cold May 28, followed by sweet cherries and then tarts and other crops growing in moderate to poor sites, or in a valley or pocket more susceptible to cold weather, she said.

Comments

[Edward]

This is what happens when frost damages early blueberries:

http://www.canr.msu.edu/vanburen/frstbb.htm

Frozen fruitlets had a dark shrunken appearance and were easily detected in the field. When cut open these severely affected fruit were almost hollow. Some seeds were killed. Seed cavities or locules that had frozen dried out. The fruit was easily recognizable from the outside and by harvest would separate from sound berries with the trash as the fruit past over air blowers that carry leaves, twigs and other debris away from the heavier fruit.