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By Elspeth Mizner
NORTH EAST, Pa. (Erie News Now) – Just a few weeks ago, local farmers were worried with cold weather on the way, what it could mean for their apples just as they were starting to bud.
Flash forward to Monday and they are in full bloom at Burch Farms in North East.
Tim Burch, the owner at Burch Farms said, “Apples have just started to go into bloom here over the weekend, and we are able to look in the flowers and make sure all the internal fruiting parts are okay and I’m very very happy to say at this point there looks like there’s going to be a bumper crop of apples this fall.”
After the past few years of cold temperature and frost, seeing these blooms are a sigh of relief for Burch.
“Very thrilled to death that we’ve made it through the cold snap we had a couple weeks ago, and right now the forecast for this week and the next week is looking very good, no real cold temperatures”, explained Burch.
Burch said the frost and cold weather didn’t impact his apple crop. But, the jury still out over at Westgate Farms, the owner said there’s still a few more weeks left in May and there still a chance frost could effect their cherry crops.
Dave Wagner, the owner of Westgate Farms said, “We can have a killing frost all the way up until maybe May 26, but I’ve been lucky so far this year”.
Wagner whose been farming for decades said that right now what he sees with his cherry crops right now is promising.
“Blossom for about a week and we’re getting to the tail end and all these white petals will drop off eventually and you’ll be able to see the little cherry probably in a week”, said Wagner.
While both Burch and Wagner are happy with the blooms, it’s now time for the pollination to begin.
“The longer the flowers are out growing, the better chance we have them of the insects getting them pollinated”, said Burch.
Wagner said this spring he’s experienced four frosts and he hopes the next few weeks go by with no frost.
Meantime, Burch said the blooms couldn’t have come at a more perfect time with the Apple Blossom Celebration happening this weekend. More information can be found here.
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