YAKIMA — The bad news for cherry lovers is that they’ll have to wait a couple extra weeks to get their Bing and Rainier fixes.
However, growers say the cool weather means less stress on trees and, possibly, a good harvest if everything works out.
“I will say that the recent warm weather is a godsend,” said B.J. Thurlby, president of the Washington State Fruit Commission. “The bloom looks outstanding, giving us hope that we have a crop to bring to market this year.”
Washington leads the nation in production of sweet cherries, and cherries are one of the top three fruit crops produced in the state.
Last year’s cherry harvest of 13.3 million 20-pound boxes, a 34.5 percent decline from the previous year, was attributed a two-week cold snap that hit right when the trees were in bloom, damaging blossoms and slowing down bees’ pollination.
This year saw a warmer but still cool spring that slowed down the bloom.
As a result, Thurlby and cherry growers said the harvest is likely pushed back about two weeks. Typically, cherries are ready to be picked around June 1, but the earliest harvest will begin this year is June 15.
Thurlby said the late start also throws off efforts to forecast this year’s yield. In a normal year, cherry growers get a handle on the crop by the first week of May, but Thurlby said the cool weather means that it will be sometime next week when he’ll have a better idea on how the harvest is shaping up.
The bloom in warmer parts of the Valley has passed, but in areas like Naches, the trees are still blooming.
Travis Allan, with Allan Brothers Fruit, said while the cool weather has delayed the cherry’s life cycle, it is not necessarily a bad thing.
“The cool weather is good,” Allan said. “The hot weather stresses the trees.”
Sean Gilbert, with Gilbert Orchards, agreed, saying that the temperatures were practically “just right” for the cherries.
“There’s a kind of a sweet spot,” Gilbert said of temperatures. “We want to be in Goldilocks weather, and we’re in a good spot now.”
April averaged 47.5 degrees, almost 2.5 degrees below the mean temperature for that month, while May typically averages about 59 degrees, according to the National Weather Service in Pendleton, Ore.
In contrast, April 2022’s average temperature was 44 degrees.
Gilbert said there’s been no frost damage to the delicate blossoms, and it hasn’t been so hot as to stress the trees.
But now, he and Luke Anderson, Allan Brothers’ Yakima River area manager, said the hopes for the harvest now ride on the bees that pollinate the blossoms.
“Whether the bees did their job, that remains to be seen,” Anderson said.
