Page 11

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Wall St Journal 5/10/76

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Commodities
Early Heat, Later Frost Hurt Fruit Crops
In Certain Areas; Some Prices May Rise

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By Robert R Bogda
Staff Reporter of the Wall Street Journal

CHICAGO - Nearing desperation, a northern
Illinois orchard owner hired a helicopter
to drop fertilizer on his 2,000 apple trees last
week on the eve of an expected hard freeze.
Temperatures of 26 to 28 degrees, about the
lowest that apple blossoms can survive, had
been predicted.

"The fertilizer stimulates the trees to
grow faster in just a few hours," grower
Robert Quigg Jr. says. "The increased metabolism
warms up the trees a degree or
two which might be just enough to save the
crop."

As an added precaution, Mr. Quigg had a
helicopter standing by all night to agitate
the freezing air in the hopes of salvaging yet
another degree or two. This is a more conventional
tactic. Both measures proved unnecessary
as the mercury that evening bottomed
out in the lower 30s.

But fruit growers are among the most
vulnerable of all businessmen to mother nature's
seasonal whims and can't afford to
take any chances. The slightest temperature
variation sometimes can mean the difference
between producing a crop and losing
everything.

Because major commercial fruit growing
areas, particularly California, are expected
to produce bumper crops this year, last
week's frost damage mightn't have much
effect on total production, some crop watchers
say. They estimate this year's overall production
of deciduous fruits could come close
to the 11.6 million tons harvested in the U.S.
last year.

Problem Areas
But in certain sections of fruit-producing
country, unfavorable weather may have left
some growers with barely enough fruit to
put together a decent salad. "Many fruit
crops won't reach last year's yields," one
crop statistician says. At the very least, this
will mean higher prices in those areas for
locally grown fruits.

Some areas of North Carolina, for example,
have lost 80% of their peach crop, and
possibly half of the state's blueberry crop
has been detroyed by bad weather, says
Fred Hockaday, an official of the state agriculture
department. "Many growers have
already pruned their bushes", Mr Hockaday
says. "They're through for the year."
Statisticians in neighbouring South Carolina
also estmate peach-crop losses of up to 80%
in some areas.

In some places, actual damage mightn't
be so severe as early reports indicated.
Some reports said Virginia might lose almost
all of its apple crop, for example, but state
agricultural officials now say the damage
was severe only in isolated areas. But freezing
temperatures in mid-April followed by
extremely hot, dry weather already had
ruined anywhere from 30% to all of the
peach crop in some areas.

Early Forces Development
Normally, fruits grown in many areas
can survive occasional late frosts. But exceptionally
warm temperatures in early
spring forced many trees and bushes out of
dormancy two to three weeks earlier than
usual. So, they were in an advanced stage of
development, making them extremely vulnerable

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to damage from late frosts.

Pollination is another factor fruit growers
are watching closely these days. Bees,
which are rented for about $20 a hive, are
depended upon by many farmers to pollinate
the buds. Generally, one hive of 100,000 to
200,000 bees is sufficient for pollinating one
acre of fruit.

But in western New York, a week of cold
and rainy weather may have kept most of
the bees in their hives during the critical
pollination period, says a spokesman for a
local fruit growers' group. Minimum temperatures
of 50 to 60 degrees are required for
bees to do their work properly.

Southwest Michigan, one of the state's
top fruit-producing areas, was particularly
hard hit by the early warm weather and
subsequent cold weather. March temperatures
in the 60s and higher sparked the beginning
of one of the earliest growing seasons
on record.

Bee Pollination Lost
But April frosts and temperatures too
cool for bee pollination caused "severe"
losses to 1976 crops, says Herb Teichman, a
Michigan fruit grower with 35,000 trees of
various varieties.

On the basis of the damage to his own
trees, Mr. Teichman projects losses in
three of the largest producing counties in
the state of 90% of a normal sweet cherry
crop and 60% of an average tart cherry
yield. Last year, Michigan led the nation in
tart cherry production.

"Some of the early varieties of apples
also were hurt in some areas here," Mr.
Teichman says, "but the later varieties,
those that blossom after the frost, should be
okay if the weather becomes favorable for
bee pollination."

Much the same is expected to be true of
apples, peaches and cherries produced in
the northeastern quarter of the country,
crop statisticians and fruit growers say.

Apple and apple-product prices last year
were the lowest in years because of record
production of 7.2 billion pounds. Until a few
weeks ago, for example, a case of one-pound
cans of applesauce sold for less than $5 in
some wholesale markets. But because of the
damaged apple crop, some applesauce
prices already have risen to $5.75 a case and
$6 isn't far off, one Michigan fruit processor
says.