BENTON HARBOR, Mich. – Michigan will not have a full crop of fruit this year due to frost, but the extent of the damage won’t be fully known until early June.

Dan Dick, a tree fruit specialist with the Michigan State University extension office in Benton Harbor, said his level of concern about the crop damage is moderate.

“Nobody has a total crop loss. Evaluations over the next few weeks are going to tell us more as the fruit are setting past bloom,” he said.

Nikki Rothwell, a tree fruit specialist at the MSU extension office in Traverse City, said she has spotted frost damage in tart cherries ranging from 20 percent to over 50 percent of the crop in orchards close to her in the northwest part of the state.

However, she believes some of the less damaged tart and sweet cherries will survive.

Rothwell said crop losses related to frost could also be reduced if there’s a good pollination season to help cherry trees with their production. She said there hasn’t been much pollinating in the Traverse City area recently because of a stretch of 40-degree temperatures keeping the bees from becoming active.

“I’m still remaining optimistic that we’ll have a cherry crop up here,” she said.

The Traverse City area is where most of the cherries are produced in the state. Michigan provides nearly 75 percent of the nation’s tart cherries, according to the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. Michigan ranks fourth nationwide in sweet cherry production.

Dick said the frost damage to plums, peaches and apricots is similar to the degree spotted, so far, in cherries.

The apple crop was also damaged but not as much since apple trees can better withstand frost. The state ranks second in apple production.

When frost damages a fruit tree after it has bloomed the fruit of the tree could be injured. That fruit will fall off the trees while injured fruit will sometimes remain on the branches and recover but sometimes at a lower quality.

Dick did not want to predict what the crop losses will turn out to be since there’s currently a lot of guess work involved. “It’s hard to tell right now because fruit can fall off as late as June,” he said.

Rothwell said growers, even with 80 percent damage, can still wind up with a crop worth harvesting, though, because the fruit remaining on the branches will grow larger since there’s less competition for nutrients from the trees.

Most of the damage appears to be the lower lying areas in orchards where the coldest air at night sinks and settles on the fruit. Damage in elevated areas like hillsides where wind can help keep the air a bit warmer and frost from settling on the fruit appears to be much less.

Rothwell said one thing that has her worried is frost developed again twice in recent days and reports of damaged fruit falling to the ground keep coming in from several major growers in her part of the state.

“The verdict is still out on where we are. I think we’re just going to have to wait and see,” she said.