WATCH: Growing pains, tough year to grow cherries

• Last year’s growing season still felt
• Cherry crop down by more than half
• Expect higher prices

Walking on the rain-soaked grass amongst the trees in his orchard in Kelowna, farm manager Mani Gill observes the branches which are normally bustling with apples and cherries by now.

However, with trees growing far fewer clusters of fruit at the moment, he’s reflecting on the difficult growing conditions that have now spanned an entire year.

“If you go back to last year, I mean, the spring was great. It was warm and everyone was happy, and the bloom was looking good,” Gill told Kelowna10. “Then we got hit with the extreme heat in June … a lot of people lost crops. Fruit quality wasn’t the greatest”

Challenges continued after the intense heat from last June. An extreme cold snap over winter, and now a cooler, rainier spring have contributed to struggling crops.

The excessive amounts of recent precipitation also has meant bees haven’t been as active pollinating blossoms.

“This year’s cherry crop is probably down 50, 60 per cent. Maybe even more in some blocks,” he said. “If you go around, some of the trees have maybe 10 per cent crop of what they had last year. So, definitely there’s going to be a lower crop.”

While rain is a crucial aspect of growing, too much of it can have detrimental effects. Apples are at risk of scab infection, as Gill explained, when there’s too much moisture.

In response, farmers spray fungicides, which must be reapplied once the rain washes it off the fruit. Cherries also need powdery mildew sprays.

“This just adds extra costs for the farmers that we have to spray more often and especially this year, it hurts because it’s everything: price of sprays has gone up, low crop yields, so it’s going to be a tough year,” Gill said.

Once the cherries go from green to red they start soaking up the water. While this can contribute to large, juicy cherries, too much water can split them.

These damaged cherries can be sold locally to help with low supply, but they can’t be packaged for exporting.

Helicopters can be hired to blow air onto the trees, drying them, but that’s an expensive solution.

Gill expects some of these growing challenges will be felt by consumers.

“Prices will be high. If you already go to the grocery stores right now, I think California cherries were selling for $7 a pound,” he said. “You would think that B.C. cherries will be selling at that or if not, maybe a little bit more.”

Despite the challenges of the past year, Gill hasn’t let that dampen his spirits.

“Farmers are always optimistic. That’s our whole motto, there’s always next year.”

Without being able to predict the future, Gill believes, despite the expected low yield, there won’t be an issue with the quality of produce harvested.

He remains hopeful the weather will turn into a nicer spring and summer.

“I think the cherries, for example, will be nice and big and juicy cherries but we just need that heat to come in now.”