Jul 11, 2013

Washington cherry crop took beating from rain, heat

Heavy rain and now blistering hot weather has made this a year to remember – or maybe quickly forget – for Washington cherry growers.

Recent rain and fickle weather earlier in the year decimated this year’s early Northwest cherry crop and forced many growers to leave split fruit on the tree rather than pay the additional costs of harvest and packing.

Originally estimated as a moderate crop of up to 18 million 20-pound boxes, the crop is now expected to come in at much less than that, probably 13 to 14 million boxes – if late harvest cherries are picked without further weather damage. The Columbian

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