'Spotty' Cherry Crop Looms, But Grapes Look Good

Area fruit growers are gearing up for another busy growing season as they gauge the impact of the long winter on their orchards and vineyards.

Local winemakers are cautiously optimistic about their grape crop this year, while some cherry growers are seeing spotty frost damage in their orchards that’s expected to lead to another small tart cherry crop across Michigan.

“Unfortunately for the second year in a row the tart cherry crop is pretty light,” Leelanau County cherry farmer Jim Nugent says. “The sweets definitely came through the frost better than the tart crop did.”

Nugent pointed to a “freeze event” on April 20 as the culprit for much of his orchard damage. Overnight temperatures fell to around 20 degrees and windy conditions made it even colder, specifically in the high and low-lying areas of his orchards that are more susceptible to cold temperature. Nugent farms more than 40 acres of tarts and sweets south of Suttons Bay.

“It was a tough freeze event,” Nugent says.

Jack King of King Orchards in Antrim County says he saw similar issues in his tart cherry orchards, but the damage wasn’t widespread and not as prominent among his sweet cherries.

“We saw a lot of nice bloom – but (the tart cherries) didn’t set very well,” he says. “We’ve got a nicer sweet crop.”

Nikki Rothwell, coordinator of the Northwest Michigan Horticultural Research Station in Leelanau County, describes the frost damage as “variable” depending on an orchard’s location and the cherry bud development of the trees. Fruit farmers in the north end of the local growing region saw less damage because the fruit wasn’t as developed as other areas to the south. Some growers may only get 10 percent of their normal crop this year, she says, while others could see 60 to 70 percent of their typical crop.

“It’s definitely variable,” Rothwell says.

Local vintners are more upbeat about this year’s grape crop, which develops later than cherries and isn't as susceptible to early-season weather swings.

Lee Lutes, managing member and head winemaker at Black Star Farms, says winter damage in his vineyards looks minimal so far. But some grape varieties could be impacted by heavier snows this past winter and the rare freezing over of Grand Traverse Bay.

“It’s still quite early – we haven’t quite gotten to bloom,” Lutes says. “We may have some varieties that are a little more light,” specifying that pinot noir and merlot are among those that were adversely impacted by the more-traditional northern Michigan winter.

Eddie O’Keefe, president of Chateau Grand Traverse on the Old Mission Peninsula, says he’s finding similar conditions on the east side of Grand Traverse Bay.

“We made it through the winter without any real damage that I’ve noticed or I know of,” O’Keefe says. “It’s so far so good – but as you get further into the growing season, anything can happen.”

Lutes says area wineries aren’t overly concerned about the yield in this year’s grape crop coming off several years of strong harvests that created plenty of fruit – so much that it left some unharvested grapes in some vineyards last season.

“We’ve all got excess inventory right now,” Lutes says. “The last few seasons we’ve had a lot of fruit.”

But Northern Michigan’s grape and wine sector also faces other challenges beyond those from Mother Nature. O’Keefe notes the industry is battling through a decade-long downturn in wine consumption. Baby boomers are drinking less wine and subsequent generations have more adult beverages options than ever including seltzers, canned cocktails and craft beers.

O’Keefe says he’s hopeful those trends have bottomed out and that wine sales, both locally and nationally, will start trending upward.

“Slowly but surely things are starting to get better again,” O’Keefe says. “Our sales are finally tracking up again…we’re starting to get interest in our out-of-state markets.”

Excess fruit is not an issue currently facing the local cherry industry. Crop estimates released this month from the Michigan Cherry Committee put this year’s tart cherry crop at around 46 million pounds – well below Michigan’s typical 170-200 million pound tart cherry harvest. Northwest Michigan is expected to generate around 40 million pounds of that total, with just 4 million pounds coming from west-central Michigan and 2 million pounds in southwest Michigan.

Last year’s tart cherry harvest in Michigan – also a light year - totaled some 107 million pounds.

One upside to the light cherry crop is that growers who did escape spring frost damage should gain a healthy return on this year’s harvest. Last year some cherry processors were paying up to 60 cents a pound or more for tart cherries – a very high amount in historical terms – and growers said this year’s low harvest should generate similar prices.

“The price was high (last year) … it’s going to be a high price again this year, I think,” Nugent says. “This year - for the growers who have a crop – it will be a good year.”