iNwine: 50 per cent of early Okanagan cherry crops damaged by rain
KELOWNA - It’s been a wet start to the summer and for cherry farmers growing earlier varieties, it's not been good news.
Skeena is a popular early variety cherry grown in the Okanagan and it tends to be sensitive to rain and consequently splitting.
“Some of the earlier, more susceptible varieties I have quite a bit of damage,” said Sukhpaul Bal, from Hillcrest. “Upwards of 50 per cent.”
However, for most seasoned cherry farmers, this type of season isn’t something new.
“2016 was very wet, too,” said Bal, recalling a similar pattern of multiple days of rain in a row, with rain showers throughout the day.
Unfortunately, with this much rain, it’s not as easy as just drying off the tree.
“The root system will draw a lot of that water and send that to the fruit too and cause it to split,” explains Bal, “That’s where you get into a lot of trouble, is a heavy downpour in a short period of time, it just overwhelms the tree, it’s taking in too much water too fast.”
Although saving these crops is a full-time job for farmers, when it comes to Skeena variety, the risk may be worth the reward.
"Skeena is probably the best-tasting variety out of all of them,” said Bal. " it’s got a nice flavour, it’s got a crunch to it when you bite into it.”
Not only is Skeena arguably to tastiest cherry, but there’s practicality behind growing earlier varieties as well. Because each variety ripens at different times in the season, timing is everything.
“If you plant way too heavy in the late season you might have too much volume” said Bal. "You can't just [grow] one variety that’s really safe and doesn’t crack, cause you won’t get it off the tree in time.”
Bal said that spreading the harvests out is key to keeping workers busy all season.
“This is the time of year I tell people, now you know why not everybody grows cherries," said Bal. "You could be spending all that time and money on the crop and within a few days your projected income can be dropped by half or more. That’s not something a lot of people wanna be dealing with."
Environment Canada is forecasting 40 per cent showers on Wednesday, and 60 per cent chance of showers on Thursday.
Although "rainy June-uary" is over, the battle isn't done yet for Okanagan cherry farmers.
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