Fickle spring takes toll on Ind. fruit

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) -- Orchard owners across Indiana have lost much of their crop this year to big temperature swings that saw unseasonable highs in March bring buds out early, only to be killed off in an April freeze.

Tom Creswell, director at Purdue University's Plant and Pest Diagnostic Laboratory, said damage to crops is "pretty widespread across the state."

"A lot of orchards lost most, if not all, of their fruit. It hit pretty hard this year," Creswell told the Journal Gazette ( http://bit.ly/NeY2a2 ).

Parts of Indiana saw several 80-degree days in March, which prompted many plants to bud early. But freezing temperatures in April killed off many of those buds.

"We had that warm spell and then the frost came and that killed the buds," said Warren McCroskey, 91, who grows apples and pears for enjoyment in Fort Wayne. "The freeze got them all."

Randy Bruick, co-owner of Advanced Tree Technology in New Haven, said this spring's cold snaps wreaked the most havoc he's seen in 30 years of growing fruit.

"We lost about half of our apples. It hurt us bad," Bruick said. "This has been crazy."

Bruce Bordelon, an agricultural specialist at Purdue, said it's hard to know how many orchards were affected because some owners aren't talking about their losses for fear it will keep customers away.

"Nobody really wants to say they lost (fruit) because then people will figure there's no use going out to the orchards to pick," Bordelon said. "The fact is some got it worse than others."

Retailers say it's too soon to know whether the damage will affect prices or how widespread shortages could be.
"There will be shortages (in several states), but we won't know more until it gets closer to fall," said Meijer Inc. spokesman Dave Peterson.

Indiana has 143 apple orchards covering more than 1,900 acres across the state, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service. Apple sales totaled $9.6 million in 2010.
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Information from: The Journal Gazette, http://www.journalgazette.net