Fruit
Despite several frosty nights where temps dropped to as low as 27F on Thursday morning at Magicland Farms and 25.4F at the ag station just SW of Fremont, it still looks like we have fruit coming. Don’t get me wrong, there is obviously some damage, especially to the flowers and flower buds in the lowest parts of the orchard. One reason that their still is fruit coming probably has to do with our discing the orchard a week ago. As mentioned in an earlier post, bare ground helps protect crops from freezing for two reasons: first the warm ground heats the air directly and it also provides radiant energy something like a heat lamp does which can keep you nice and toasty if it shines on you while not warming the air much at all. I tested this theory out at 7:15AM Thursday April 5 when I took an electronic digital thermometer which has an accuracy reading of +/- a tenth of a degree, to the orchard and measured the temperature of the ground surface when my foot high thermometer was reading 29F. I found out that at ground level over bare soil the temperature was above freezing perhaps at 35F, while the surface temperature over a grass sod was below 27F. Under certain conditions that 8F difference could mean the difference between a full crop and no crop. Of course if it gets cold enough…
Back around March 25 I gave our chances for not being wiped out by a freeze as a hundred to one. Well, I mentioned this to my son Matt and he reminded me that the chances for having such a record breaking warm March like we just had were about a hundred to one also. Add this to the fact that the southern half of Canada has also experienced a record warm spring and fast snowmelt up north it just is possible I should have placed the odds at something like 10 to 1. Right now we are approaching a more normal spring with closer to normal odds of having a fruit crop. However, we have four to five weeks to get nervous every cool, clear evening…
Vegetables
Our test planting of winter lettuce is delicious eating and needs to be picked, thinned and eaten! Our garlic overwintered well and growing like crazy. Our peas, kohlrabi and radishes are up and doing nicely. We have also just planted our beets, carrots, dill and parsnips. Our early planting of potatoes are in and we have started setting our deliciously sweet Newaygo Newaygo onion plants out. Our tomatoes in our unheated greenhouse at the lake are getting too big and need to be planted soon, although its too early to plant directly in the field but we think we will plant our high tunnel with tomatoes in a few days.
Again we have started a good selection of heirloom tomatoes in flats. This year we are planting two new varieties of large red tomatoes that are supposed to be exceptional flavorful. The first, Tasti-Lee, will likely have a national advertising campaign to push it. The other tomato, BHN-569 has been rated near the tops in many taste tests.
We opened our doors at Magicland Farms a couple of weeks ago and we have our stored apples up for sale. We also are selling seed hardy pecans and seed Shellbark Hickories as well as packets of seeds like lettuce, kohlrabi, carrots, dill, radishes which can be planted right now.
We just planted 1000 Honeoye strawberries and 250 Seascape strawberries. The Seascape strawberries are a new everbearing and we think we will be able to start picking them in August and keep it up until frost. We will be plowing down our old planting of strawberries in late June, rigth after harvest. Because of the age of the old planting, we expect very few strawberries out of it this year.
For the first time we have rented some farmland–not much, just a 2.25 acres but this was new for us. We rented it from Keith Swanson. This was very convenient for us since Keith’s 6 acres is right in the middle of our farm. We plan on planting mostly Mirai sweet corn on the rented property which means we will have around 20 acres of sweet corn this year.
The following is an article written by Paul Jackson which appeared in the March 30, 2012 issue of the Michigan Farm News. It is well worth reading…Trust me! To subscribe contact the Michigan Farm Bureau www.michiganfarmbureau.com
The calendar lies
By Paul W. Jackson
The look and feel of spring – and even summer – arrived in March this year, leaving farmers concerned about the high probability of frost or freeze damage, especially on fruit.
You look at the calendar, and you have certain expectations.
Boiling maple syrup should send sweet scents into the cold morning. Tree pruning and brush clearing should be about done, but it’s still late winter, so there’s no big hurry. You’ll split the last of the firewood for stacking if you get around to it.
You put on your coat and boots and step outside. Your first thought? Forget the wood. The ax is going to fall first on everything else, because the calendar is a liar.
You exchange the coat and boots for tennis shoes and a t-shirt and head to town. People are smiling, and when you’re asked ‘how ’bout this weather?’ you have to stop yourself from your conditioned response: “Yeah. When will spring get here?”
You head home, feeling a little like Rip Van Winkle. Did you sleep right through March and wake up in April?
More importantly, you realize that you’d better get farming again, and fast, because Ma Nature isn’t waiting. Not this year.
Even farmers who’ve seen 80 springs or more can’t remember a vernal equinox like this, surrounded by record temperatures, budding fruit and emerging asparagus. The groundhog blew it. Television meteorologists adjusted their forecasts mid-stream. Passionate global warming theorists insisted they told you so.
It’s the talk of the town, this strange and unexpected season. The calendar’s announcement of spring has never seen eye-to-eye with reality before. And while people were planning outdoor March Madness grill parties and trying to convince their kids they needn’t go south for Spring Break, farmers are preparing for that vengeful winter ax to hit them between the eyes.
“An early warm up like this is never a good thing,” said state meteorologist and MSU assistant professor Jeff Andresen. “That doesn’t mean it’s a slam dunk, but the statistical odds of a freeze that kills this early growth are way up. We all love it, but it’s dangerous for agriculture.”
Only the first of Michigan’s crops has gotten past this year’s record-breaking March so far. Early reports from maple syrup producers indicate that the warm weather played havoc with the sap run following last year’s record crop of 123,000 gallons.
“In the three major syrup regions, there is quite a bit of variability,” said Russell Kidd, Michigan State University Extension forestry agent in Roscommon. “In the Upper Peninsula, they’re looking at about half a crop. In the northern Lower Peninsula, they might get about 35 percent. But in the southern Lower Peninsula, one person told me they might get 70 percent, if they tapped in early February. But even then, the sap was watery with no sugar in it.”
Next on the Michigan harvest list is asparagus, and here’s where the real potential trouble begins.
With spears already emerging, Todd Greiner, a Hart grower and fresh asparagus packer, said the crop is six weeks ahead of normal, and there’s no way the labor he needs will be here on time to save the first five or six pickings.
“We need 40 people just on our own farm for picking, and 100 for packing,” he said. “I hope we can get some local people to pick part of it, but we don’t have much choice but to mow most of it down. If we lose five or six pickings out of a normal year of 25 to 30 pickings, it’s expensive.”
Even if asparagus growers could get the first emerging spears harvested, the fresh market is flooded with “grass” from Mexico and California, and the price isn’t good.
“The last thing we want to do is jump into the fresh market now,” said John Bakker, executive director of the Michigan Asparagus Advisory Board. “The price is below our cost of production. Washington’s crop is coming on, and New Jersey growers will start cutting in a week or two. It’s a perfect storm with us all getting into the market at the same time.”
As if looking at a crop that lacks labor for harvest isn’t cruel enough, the price for this year’s processing crop, as negotiated by the Michigan Asparagus Growers Division of the Michigan Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Association (MACMA), is nearly as high as March temperatures, at 73 cents per pound.
Luckily, if processors can shift gears as quickly as winter turned to spring, there will be a crop to process, Bakker said.
“Fortunately, Michigan is one of the only areas with the option to divert asparagus to the processing market,” he said. “We have options, so it’s not going to be a train wreck if we can get the product out of the field.”
Vegetable growers such as Kent Karnemaat of Fremont, who grows for Gerber, won’t have such a difficult time, although his family still gets anxious when temperatures hit the 80s.
“We have better growing conditions today (March 20) than we had the first three weeks of last year’s growing season,” he said. “Last year, we planted peas April 21. This year, we could have had them all planted by now, but we’re on a schedule for Gerber. And as for labor, there’s no problem unless it stays warm. People are not ready to leave where they’re working now. That’s a potential problem.”
However, Karnemaat said, it’s nice to be on Gerber’s schedule instead of having to depend on spot markets.
“If we planted cucumbers now and start selling them the first of July, we’ll start the season in a cheap market, especially if North Carolina and Georgia crops are not yet out of the way,” he said. “If you start cheap, the price is established, and it’s hard to get off the cheap prices.”
For the immediate future, though, Karnemaat said has another issue.
“The hardest thing for me is listening to my dad ask why the equipment’s not all ready to go,” he joked.
Fruit farmers face the same problems with potential flooded markets and labor issues, but they have longer to wait for a more normal labor situation. Still, Bakker said, blueberry growers might have to struggle to find enough pickers, and they might be impacted by the asparagus crop.
“We’re in uncharted waters here,” he said. “With temperatures like this, asparagus growers can try to start calling labor up, but I don’t know if anyone is ready to pull that trigger. Maybe we’re just a little too calendar-conscious. No one believes the weather won’t bounce back to normal, or below normal. If we get our help to come up, and then they sit for two or three weeks, that’s not a good situation. They might leave, and that would put the blueberry industry in a bad situation.”
The greatest danger for tree fruit, of course, is not labor. Not yet. It’s the threat of bud-killing cold. But until that’s in the forecast, the top priority is getting the orchards sprayed.
“I’ve never seen anything like this weather,” said Rodney Winkel, a Watervliet fruit grower. “I figure I’m going to have to put on my first scab spray about a month ahead of normal. If it doesn’t freeze, I’ll spend more money by far and still have more risk to the crop.”
Cherries, Winkel said, need to get through their ‘water stage,’ in which temperatures that are too high are nearly as dangerous as below-freezing conditions.
The greatest risk isn’t necessarily from warm-weather disease, however. It’s that much-feared temperature drop.
Some fruit farmers have invested in frost protection methods such as fans, but Winkel said they can only help boost temperatures by two or three degrees.
As worried as growers are about freezing temperatures, and as good as the statistical odds are that they will come, Andresen said this winter hasn’t exactly been following normal patterns.
“With any luck, and if you look at the forecast maps, there is almost no cold air in the eastern part of the hemisphere,” he said. “We will have to have a major change in the jet stream, and typically, during this transitional spring period, we see changes in the jet stream every few days. But in the medium-range guidance, there is no sign of that. We’ve been above normal all the way back to last October. It’s very odd. But even knowing all that, continuing the season with no more frosts or freezes would be extremely unusual.”
That’s what growers need to hope for, though, said Bob Boehm, manager of Michigan Farm Bureau’s Commodity and Marketing department.
“If we can avoid a freeze, we could make some money,” he said. “But if I could get what I wish for, it would be that things cool down a little, into the 60s and 40s, without hitting the 30s and 20s.”
Practically, Boehm said, if the unusual warmth continues for just a few more weeks, the state could be out of freeze danger, although farmers, especially fruit farmers, won’t breathe easy until mid May. And, he said, he understands the potential for more insect, disease and weed issues if the weather stays warm.
“I think most farmers at this point would rather take the chance on the warmer weather, even if it costs them more in terms of crop protection,” he said. “The longer the growing season, the better chance for better yields, especially for spring-planted crops that – more years than not – struggle for heat units for good germination.”
After the thrill of 80 degree weather in March wears off, there’s really only one course of action for farmers. Forget about the calendar and move forward to start farming. And one other thing might help, according to Winkel.
“Put a little more money in the church plate,” he said.
