PORT DOVER - Fresh peaches could be in short supply this summer thanks to the hard winter we’re enduring.
Tender fruit crops like peaches, cherries, apricots, plums, and nectarines are notoriously sensitive to the weather. However, when it comes to the cold, peach trees are the most sensitive of all. “Peaches are in bad shape,” says farmer Murray Porteous, owner of a 40-acre orchard near Waterford. “They just can’t handle this cold. It was down to -28°C and that’s just too cold for them. There isn’t much of a crop left now.” Along with the -28°C, Porteous has recorded five nights where the mercury dipped to -23°C.
The problem is the Polar Vortex, a phenomenon where the jet stream sags and allows arctic air to spill into the Great Lakes basin and beyond. It has happened twice this winter and will peak for a third time this week with a forecast low in Simcoe Thursday of -24°C. The forecast low Saturday is -20°C.
Porteous estimates the cold has destroyed more than 90% of his peach buds. There has been damage elsewhere, but not as severe. Sarah Marshall, manager of the Ontario Tender Fruit Producers Marketing Board, says field surveys suggest the Niagara Region remains on target for a normal crop. Nearly 85% of Ontario’s peaches, nectarines, plums, apricots and cherries come from the Niagara area. “From the standpoint of Ontario’s major producing area, we’re fine,” Marshall said Tuesday.
Porteous is cautiously optimistic that local apples, pears and cherries will escape this winter unscathed. But another large producer – Marshall Schuyler of Simcoe – isn’t so sure. Tuesday, he said the cherry situation is touch and go. Schuyler is heartened that area orchards experienced a gradual cool down last fall before the deep freeze arrived. Schuyler is also encouraged that the bud set on his cherry trees remains tight and dormant.
But the cold has been severe enough to make him wonder. Cold becomes an issue for sour cherry trees when the temperature dips into the range of -25°C. “We’re in uncharted territory,” Schuyler said. “I’ll know in the spring. My gut feeling is we’re OK, but I wouldn’t want to bet the farm on it.”
Alfalfa and wheat farmers will also be looking for damage. For them, cold isn’t the problem so much as the occasional freeze and thaw that puts low, poorly drained areas under water. Affected areas at this point will be iced over. “It’s not the cold that’s detrimental,” says Larry Davis of Burford, the local area’s representative to the Ontario Federation of Agriculture. “It’s the ups and downs in temperature. That’s when we suffer. These crops need to breathe. If they can’t, they suffocate and die.”
Davis this week is attending the Canadian Federation of Agriculture’s annual conference in Ottawa. While there, he heard vineyards in Ontario have suffered from the extreme cold. The threshold temperature for grape growers is in the range of -19°C.
Normal daytime highs at the end of February are in the freezing range. In years past, some producers of maple syrup are already harvesting sap by this time. Ideal conditions include above freezing temperatures during the day and below freezing temperatures at night.
According to the latest Environment Canada forecast, it could be another week before the weather returns to seasonal norms. Even so, producer Marvin Chambers, of Rockford, says it shouldn’t be a problem.
“Just as long as we can get going in two weeks, that’s all,” he said Tuesday. “I think it’s going to turn really fast on us. It can happen overnight. Everybody’s primed up and ready to get at it.”
Source - http://www.simcoereformer.ca/
