Published: May 30, 2008 12:00 am      

Farmers fear cold damaged their crops

Low-lying areas appear to have suffered the worst

BENZONIA -- Jack Gray couldn't bring himself to check his sweet cherry crop after a widespread frost settled across northwestern Michigan.

After all, he'd already glimpsed the ugly truth about the frost's impact on his strawberry patches and apple trees.

Temperatures in the mid-20s crept into the low-lying areas of the Benzonia fruit grower's 300-acre farm Tuesday night, wreaking havoc and threatening his crops.

Sweet cherries have begun to emerge in recent weeks, Gray said, and he fears the cold snap may have hit the crop hard.

"I wouldn't call it a frost, I would call it a freeze. Right now, it looks like the apples are devastated and the cherries are in shock," Gray said Wednesday. "It was a big event. It is going to change the crop significantly in this region."

Area farmers will spend the next several days monitoring fruit crops to determine the damage from the below-freezing temperatures that lasted for several hours in some areas.

Losses likely will be more noticeable in lower elevations where colder air settles, and among fruits such as apples or sweet cherries that are in a more vulnerable growth stage, said Nikki Rothwell, horticulturist and coordinator of the Northwest Michigan Horticultural Research Station.

"We plant apples in our low sites so we are going to see some damage in apples. Also just because they are in bloom," Rothwell said, adding that a cool, windy spring also complicated pollination in some areas.

"We had the pollination issue on top of this frost, so we could see some reductions in yields, but I don't think we will be wiped out," she said.

Kevin Sullivan, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Gaylord, said clear skies and calm winds kept virtually all of the northwestern section of the state below freezing Tuesday night, with an unconfirmed low of 19 degrees in Elmira in Otsego County.

"In some places we had a pretty deep freeze," Sullivan said.

But at King Orchards near Antrim County's Central Lake, John and Jim King used wind machines to push out the cold air, something that may have helped enough to minimize damage, Jim King said.

"It doesn't appear to be all that bad. Next week I will know for sure, so I could be totally wrong," said King, who grows apples, cherries, pears, peaches, plums and other fruits in Antrim and Grand Traverse counties.

"I am more worried about the pollination than I am last night's frost at this point. There was not a lot of bee activity and the validity of the pollen is also in question," he said.

Higher growth elevations also gave area wine growers an advantage over the frost, said Sean O'Keefe, vineyard manager for Chateau Grand Traverse on Old Mission Peninsula.

"I think if it would have gotten a few degrees colder or (lasted) a little bit longer it could have been bad news," O'Keefe said. "The lowest areas ... the leaves got a little bit toasted. I think we just scraped by."