DOOR COUNTY (NBC 26) — Snow is in the forecast, and cold temperatures could impact cherry trees across Door County. While cherry season typically peaks in July, orchard trees deal with winter’s challenges and benefits long before the first harvest.
"It's one of those things that you just kinda gotta play it out and see," Skipp Robertson, owner of Robertson Orchards said.
Robertson says the snow from Friday, along with the snowfall expected over the weekend, actually helps protect his trees.
"I look at the snow as giving everything an insulating barrier for the roots to keep everything from freezing," Robertson said.
According to Connor Tanck with the University of Wisconsin-Madison Peninsula Research Station, growers need to pay close attention to one thing in particular: the wet, heavy snow.
"If that sticks onto those limbs and then it were to freeze at night, it's really stuck there." He said "If we get winds of 30-40 miles an hour, some of those older trees that already have weaker limbs, you're cracking them off, you're creating a lot of issues with disease then and losing a lot of production this year."
He says if we see another cold snap with temperatures below zero, that cold could affect the cherry buds on the trees.
"If it were to get down into those deep, deep negatives, that's when you see the cherry crop itself kinda struggle," Tanck said.
They’ve tested some of the buds, and so far, nothing has started to swell, which means the trees are still dormant and haven’t begun growing yet.
Since it’s still early March and the weather is unpredictable, both the research station and Robertson say it’s too soon to know how the harvest season will turn out.
