2017 Fruit Crops Earn High Grades

Yes, those cherries at this year’s National Cherry Festival are from local orchards. It appears to be solid crop this season, experts say, with a solid year for wine grapes and other fruits as well.

Nikki Rothwell, center coordinator of the Northwest Michigan Horticultural Research Center of Michigan State University, says the harvest has provided for an abundance of local cherries at the city’s biggest festival. “We have local sweet cherries for the Cherry Festival. That’s always exciting,” says Rothwell.

She says a flash freeze in the spring did some damage, but prospects are still good. “Tarts are looking pretty good. We should have 130 million pounds from northwest lower Michigan. The west side of the state got hit with frost, so the Hart/Shelby area is a little down.”

Rothwell says the crop should compare favorably with an average year. “I think sweets are down a little bit, but it’s still good,” she says. The region’s recent spell of wet weather was not enough to negatively impact the crop, though if it had kept up it could have been damaging. “We had so much rain. I’m glad that’s drying out. It’s the lushest I’ve seen northern Michigan look in a long time.”

Rothwell says there has been good pollination, welcome news for all crops. While there are concerns about the nation’s honeybees, she says growers in this area have been fortunate to have plenty of bees busily doing their work to pollinate fruits and vegetables. “That’s really important,” she says.

The region’s other most visible fruit is also poised for a good year. “Grapes have good bloom, good health – it should be a sizeable crop, normal to above,” says Duke Elsner, small fruit and consumer horticulture educator for MSU Extension in Traverse City.

“It’s a little later blooming, but it should be a good crop,” he says.

McKenzie Gallagher, co-owner of Rove Estate just west of Traverse City, echoes Elsner’s sentiments and is even more upbeat than Rothwell about cherries, which she and her husband Creighton also grow. “It (this year’s cherry harvest) is the biggest we’ve had since my husband and I bought the property in 2011. The recent rain was a little problematic, but the breeze dries it out fast.”

She’s pleased with the prospects for grapes as well, particularly as a late freeze had them holding their breath. “It’s looking great. It’s kind of a surprise – in early May the vineyard was 22 degrees with frost. We thought we’d have significant loss in both cherries and grapes.”

Locals say the 2017 apple, peach, berries and hops yield should also be solid.

“Raspberries are very good so far. The fall-bearing aren’t out yet but there was no winter kill,” says Elsner. Likewise strawberries. The early crop was a success and is mostly gone already, and Elsner says the ever-bearing will likely continue to be good.

A more recent trending crop is Saskatoons. Very popular in Canada (think Saskatoon, Saskatchewan), they look like a blueberry, but Elsner says the taste is different. More significant are the fruit’s nutritional aspects and the relative ease of growing it. “They’re highly nutritious. They’re a super-fruit (with) anthocyanins.

“Blueberries only grow in acidic soil; saskatoons don’t need special soil. They’ve very adaptable and extremely cold-tolerant. A retired (extension) agent brought them in. The oldest is only 8-10 years old,” Elsner says.

And the microbrewing industry should be pleased about the prospects of the region’s every-increasing acreage of hops fields. “The majority have reached the top of the trellises,” says Mike Moran of MI Local Hops. “Even the first-year hops are looking strong.”