After a slow start to the growing season, cherry farmers are gearing up for the National Cherry Festival starting June 30th.
Cherries are some of the first crops to bloom in Michigan, and officials said early spring weather can significantly impact their growth.
Nikki Rothwell is the Coordinator of the Northwest Michigan Horticultural Research Center. She said a cold early spring put pressure on the cherry crop.
“It was really cold, cold, cold, and we had those really kind of weird snowstorms in April, so we were really far behind, but then we had that week of 80s to 90s, which is very unheard of up here in the traverse city area”
Rothwell said the recent temperature increase has growers back on track.
“That really caught us up in terms of growing, so we’re really right on par with the heat accumulations that we’ve seen in the past, so I think we’re poised to have really great cherries for the cherry festival.”
She said growers have had less pressure from disease in Cherries than in years past.
“Especially fungal pathogens they really like warm and wet, and we’ve had warm, but it’s been really dry in northern michigan. So we’re pretty excited that growers have been paying attention to the weather, but they really haven’t had to make some of those decisions about management because the disease pressure has been really low.”
Rothwell said the National Cherry Festival has been trying to incorporate more of the industry into the festival through tours, tasting, and other agriculture activities.
Officials said other crops in Michigan such as wheat and corn are also on track to have a good year.