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October 11, 2005
It's been 'a good year for growing crops'Apples, grapes fare better than grains and cornByRecord-Eagle business editor TRAVERSE CITY - Northern Michigan's fall fruits survived a dry summer - and in some cases thrived - and signal a bountiful harvest season. Area growers and agricultural officials say it's turning out to be a vintage year for grapes and apples following a robust summer cherry harvest. "Overall, some really quality produce and fruit came out of northern Michigan this year," said Jim Nugent, district horticulturist at the Northwest Michigan Horticulture Research Station in Leelanau County. "It's been a good year for growing crops." The region remains more than 50 percent below it's average rainfall total for the year - a deficit of almost nine inches - but there's been sufficient moisture since a mid-summer drought to save the harvest. "We've kind of gotten just enough rain on an as-needed basis since the last week of July," Nugent said. "For as dry as it was this summer, we really ended up with better fruit size than we anticipated." Area vintners say the weather's been perfect for the region's burgeoning grape and wine industry, and they're picking some high-quality fruit off their vines. "It's one the best vintages I've seen," said Chris Parrish, assistant winemaker at Bel Lago Vineyard and Winery north of Cedar. "It's just really terrific." Nugent said warm summer days made for "an exceptionally nice growing season" for grapes because the warmth fully develops the fruit's sugar content. Growers say the fruit quality is similar to the excellent crop taken in during 2002 that was followed by a disastrous growing season in 2003 and a so-so grape harvest last year. "It is absolutely beautiful- gorgeous," said Emily Ulbrich, of Peninsula Cellars on the Old Mission Peninsula. "It's been really fun to see the high quality of the fruit as it comes in," she said. "It makes the long days worth it." Parrish also said the summer heat had some grape varieties ready for picking almost two weeks ahead of schedule, making for an extended harvest period. "We've really been able to bring the fruit in at a manageable rate," he said. Area apple growers had some anxious moments over the summer because of dry conditions, but said there was just enough rainfall in the last two months to save their season. "It's not a great bumper crop, but it's pretty good," said grower Mark Evans, who has around 115 acres of apple orchards in Benzie County that generate close to 70,000 bushels a season. Evans said the lack of summer rain was offset by warm weather after the apple trees bloomed in the spring. That helped the fruit size up, even with the mid-summer drought. Statewide, growers are expected to harvest around 840 million pounds of apples this year - about 20 million bushels - making Michigan the nation's third-largest apple producer. Nugent said local apple growers started picking fruit about 2½ weeks ago, and most will wrap up the harvest over the next 10 days. Most fruit crops fared better than field crops like corn and grains; their yields were limited by the dry weather. The drought also created heat stress on some fruit trees that could impact next year's harvest, agriculture officials said.
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Record-Eagle/Douglas Tesner
