By SHELLY STRAUTZ-SPRINGBORN
Michigan Correspondent

STANTON, Mich. — Michigan’s unseasonably warm spring weather gave way to freezing temperatures earlier this month that caused widespread damage to the state’s fruit and vegetable crops.
Much of the state suffered an overnight freeze on May 9 with temperatures dipping into the mid-20s in some areas.

According to the agricultural summary published by the Michigan Field Office of the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Statistics Service for the week ending May 16, farmers in the state’s west central region reported that they expect about a 50-percent reduction in crop yield potential across all fruit crops.
Terry Anderson, owner of Anderson & Girls Orchard in Stanton, Mich., said the freezing temperatures “did a lot of damage” to the orchard’s apple crop.

“We were about two weeks early with bloom. The temperature got down to 25 degrees,” he said. “Our apples are not a complete wipeout by any means, but we got beat up pretty bad.”

Anderson said it is too early to estimate how much of the crop was lost, but he has talked with several growers across the state and damage is “pretty widespread. There are very few places in Michigan that didn’t get hurt.

“There are some apples out there,” Anderson said. “If we get a week of warm weather, the ones left will take off and grow. Then, we’ll have a better idea of what we’ll have.

“Anytime you have warm weather early, you run into this,” Anderson said.

Other fruit crops continue to make progress and the extent of damage is not yet known.

Anderson said his strawberries and peaches look all right.
“Any place where there were sprinklers or irrigation on strawberries, they’re OK,” Anderson said. “We had flowers on our strawberries the first of May. Usually they’re flowering in mid-May, and we start picking them in mid-June, but they’re about two weeks early this year.

“Our peaches look pretty good. They are all up on the higher ground, so the freeze didn’t really hit them. Really, they’re more susceptible to cold in the winter than in the spring,” he said.
Vegetable progress across the state also was impacted by the freezing temperature.

Emerged spears on asparagus in Oceana and Mecosta counties were killed and the emergence of new spears was slowed by cool temperatures following the freeze.

Colleen and Bruce Gregory grow 47 acres of asparagus on their farm near Rodney, Mich., in Mecosta County.

“We started the season very early,” Colleen Gregory said. “May 1st was our first picking. It was earlier than it has been in several years.”

However, the Gregory’s farm also was hit by the overnight freeze, which put them out of production for about 10 days.

“We had to mow everything off. It was a very cold week after it froze, so it didn’t grow very much,” Gregory said. “Everybody has been pretty well shut down.”

Gregory said after the ten-day shut down, crews went back to harvesting on May 19.

“Now they’re talking 90 degrees next week. The asparagus will grow quickly,” she said. “It’s really hard to keep up with it when the temperatures are so warm.”

Progress of other vegetable crops also was slowed by both cool temperatures and rain.

According to the agricultural summary, sweet corn continued to emerge, but additional growth was slow. In the southwest, farmers reported that tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini and yellow squash were progressing well under protective low tunnels. However, in the Grand Rapids area, tomatoes growing under cover had significant frost damage, as did melons and sweet corn. Potato planting continued as conditions permit. Cold weather crops such as celery, onions, beets, lettuce, cabbage and radishes had little frost damage.