WARM TEMPS: "If you have fruit that needs to be protected, this weather is a curse not a blessing."

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By Chelsea Kopta

Summary

The unusually warm weather is throwing the crop season for a loop. It's great for veggies like salad greens but could be a nightmare for farmers who grow soft fruit like cherries, apples and blueberries.

Story Published: Feb 19, 2010 at 6:57 PM PST

PASCO, WA -- Next to the bare fruit branches and rows of blackened plants of winter, some patches of green are growing in Alan Schreiber's fields. it seems the warm sun is tricking some crops into thinking it's spring.

"This is garlic. We planted a bulb last fall. It's growing very nicely in this warm weather," Alan Schreiber said.

Alan Schreiber, of Schreiber and Sons Farm, 16 miles north of Pasco, grows dozens of crops to sell locally. It's part of a program called Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). This year, he'll sell his wares early...much earlier. He harvested salad greens like spinach and cress this week, nearly a month before schedule.

"This is our cress," he pointed out. "Normally I wouldn't be expecting to harvest cress until mid-March. We couldn't be happier."

It's great news for folks who buy locally, getting first dibs on a variety of fresh veggies. But the unseasonably warm weather could be very bad news for fruit growers.

"If you have fruit that needs to be protected, this weather is a curse, not a blessing," Schreiber said.

Soft fruit like cherries, apples and blueberries grow faster in the heat and don't have a good chance of surviving if winter weather returns. If the buds swell, a freeze can kill the fruit. Problem is, some are already swelling.

"So, you would never see these at this time normally? Action News asked Jeff Rippon about his crops. "No, not normally. These are swollen and just ready to pop," he said, pointing to buds on an apricot tree in his yard. Rippon is a cherry and apple farmer in Richland.

"This significantly increases the risk that we're going to have crop losses due to the frost," Schreiber continued.

"Potentially, if it gets really cold and stays cold, that could be a nightmare for you?" Action News asked Rippon. "Yes."

Rippon said he'll be ok if the cold doesn't go below 25 degrees. But it's risky. With 20 acres of cherries and 280 acres of apples, Rippon banks on his crop.

"It's a big gamble," he said. "That's why farmers are farmers cause they like to gamble."

Soft fruit farmers do have some protection against the cold but it comes at a huge cost. Depending on the size of the farm it can be anywhere from $10,000 to $100,000 to warm up the fruit and fan off the rain.