- Home
- Agriculture
- Bing cherry harvest off to a very late start
Bing cherry harvest off to a very late start
- By Review Staff
- Published 06/25/2008
- Agriculture
- Unrated
Most local Bing cherry growers are still waiting for enough warm weather to finish ripening their crop, even with the month of July less than a week away.
At least that’s true for those growers who have a crop to ripen.
An unusually cool, wet spring, even by last year’s standards, has pushed the Bing cherry harvest deep into June.
Buena grower Paul Rush said Monday he probably wouldn’t begin picking his Bings until near the end of this week, though some early varieties, such as Chelans, had already been picked.
He said warmer weather will help the fruit mature more quickly.
Ron Wilcox, a fruit grower in the Wapato area and a field man for a Northwest pear processor, said the Bings in this region that ripen earliest are in the Tri-Cities area, and they have just begun picking.
“Normally, picking begins about the 10th of June,” Wilcox said. “It’s a very late year. It’s a very small crop.”
Many growers up and down the valley were hit with a double whammy earlier this season, when night after night of freezing temperatures forced them to spend far more than usual on fuel for wind-machines and smudge pots.
Then, after budgets were strained, a brutal cold snap in April destroyed the many of the buds they’d been working so hard and spending so much to save.
The estimates of crop losses vary, but most agree that the valley’s cherry crop could be reduced by at least 20 percent.
Rush said he currently plans to pick all his blocks of Bings, but he admits that some pickings may be slim.
Wilcox said in April he believed this year’s cold damage was the worst he’s seen in the valley since 1985.
Growers with a light crop can find it difficult to recruit and keep pickers on the job, since workers often go to orchards with heavier crops where they can make better money.
To keep pickers, growers must pay a higher piece rate, which cuts further into already-thin profit margins.
At least that’s true for those growers who have a crop to ripen.
An unusually cool, wet spring, even by last year’s standards, has pushed the Bing cherry harvest deep into June.
Buena grower Paul Rush said Monday he probably wouldn’t begin picking his Bings until near the end of this week, though some early varieties, such as Chelans, had already been picked.
He said warmer weather will help the fruit mature more quickly.
Ron Wilcox, a fruit grower in the Wapato area and a field man for a Northwest pear processor, said the Bings in this region that ripen earliest are in the Tri-Cities area, and they have just begun picking.
“Normally, picking begins about the 10th of June,” Wilcox said. “It’s a very late year. It’s a very small crop.”
Many growers up and down the valley were hit with a double whammy earlier this season, when night after night of freezing temperatures forced them to spend far more than usual on fuel for wind-machines and smudge pots.
Then, after budgets were strained, a brutal cold snap in April destroyed the many of the buds they’d been working so hard and spending so much to save.
The estimates of crop losses vary, but most agree that the valley’s cherry crop could be reduced by at least 20 percent.
Rush said he currently plans to pick all his blocks of Bings, but he admits that some pickings may be slim.
Wilcox said in April he believed this year’s cold damage was the worst he’s seen in the valley since 1985.
Growers with a light crop can find it difficult to recruit and keep pickers on the job, since workers often go to orchards with heavier crops where they can make better money.
To keep pickers, growers must pay a higher piece rate, which cuts further into already-thin profit margins.