Currently, the ripple effect from a mid-spring deep freeze is impacting apple farms throughout western New York. The drop in temperatures back in May is responsible for wiping out this year’s entire harvest on some of these farms.
At Whittier Fruit Farm in Ogden, longtime Manager Jermaine Douglas is dealing with this very problem. He stated that the deep freeze, which lasted an estimated four hours, caused irreparable damage. Half of Whittier Fruit Farm’s 60 acres should be brimming with apples right now. Instead, a drop in temperatures back in the spring destroyed the crop for the first time in 49-years. Douglas said the farm did everything right, but Mother Nature dealt them a bad hand.
“Around May 18th what happened is the temperature dropped from its normal standard of normally 32 degrees, if it comes to a frost to like 30 degrees. This year we dropped all the way down to 26 at some spots,” said Douglas. That affected the quality of the apples, leaving them too tough to eat. Whittier lost 98 percent of its crop.
Source: whec.com/