Cherry growers in the Okanagan and Similkameen valleys hope a run of frosty temperatures since April 11 won’t do significant damage to this year’s crop. “I’m just getting started checking grower’s blocks,” says Seradaye Lean, field service and quality control advisor for Consolidated Fruit Packers Ltd. in Kelowna. “There is a range of damage within …
weather
Cold air hits cherries
Okanagan cherry growers are looking at a reduced crop this year after a series of cold events damaged buds. Up to 60% of buds were damaged when cold air swept into the South Okanagan on April 2. “I saw a low of -8°C in Summerland, and South Okanagan orchards were close to green tip,” says …
Cherry growers see record crop losses in 2019
LAKE COUNTRY – BC’s cherry industry often refers to 2016 as the Vietnam year because of the sheer number of helicopters used to dry the crop. That harvest, at 17,495 tons, was more than 1,200 tons short of the record 2015 harvest, even though plantings had increased by 150 acres. The loss had a farmgate …
Agriculture ministers discuss concerns
A meeting of federal, provincial and territorial agriculture ministers in Ottawa this week addressed several issues of concern to BC producers. BC agriculture minister Lana Popham told Country Life in BC before she left that she would be discussing assistance for farmers in the Peace hit hard by adverse conditions this fall. The assistance would …
Potato hopes mashed
A month after growers gathered for the annual BC potato variety trial field day on Westham Island, the high hopes expressed for the crop were washed out. “This is one of the best crops I’ve seen,” remarked United Potato Growers of Canada general manager Kevin MacIsaac at the time. “BC had moisture at the right …
Rains wash away burn bans
The return of wet weather across much of BC has washed away extremely dry conditions across much of the province, and most open fire prohibitions. While growers on the South Coast have received a month’s worth of rain in recent days, hampering harvest, government scientists deemed conditions right for removing restrictions on open fires in …