By Alexandra McLaughlin
The calendar says harvest season. For some Pennsylvania orchards, there is little produce to show for it.
Damaging April freezes wiped out much of the state’s tree fruit, with some growers losing nearly everything and others harvesting only a fraction of a normal yield.
“This freeze has hit fruit growers very hard this year,” said Sarah Zost, president of the State Horticultural Association of Pennsylvania. “For some, it’s led to devastating losses across all their tree-fruit crops. Others are ‘lucky’ and may have 50% of their usual apple crop. It’s a terrible year when half of a crop is considered good luck.”
A patchwork harvest
The damage was particularly severe for Pennsylvania’s peach and cherry crops, said Daniel Weber, horticulture and commercial tree fruit educator with Penn State Extension. Most peaches were lost. Cherries and apricots produced little to no crop.
“One grower said they had about two cherries for the entire orchard,” Weber said. “Another said he might have enough to make one pie.”
Apples fared better overall, but yields vary widely from orchard to orchard and even among varieties within the same farm. In some areas, growers may have around 70% of a normal crop. Elsewhere, losses are far more severe.
Source : psu.edu