Michigan loses 98% of cherry crop

[Chris]

I saw this on the news last night. I had posted earlier how our warm March tempted me to plant some things early, but they a really cold April, well it didn't kill my veggies I had planted (cold hardy things like kale or beets) but it destroyed the buds or fruits on most of my trees. I won't have pears, I might have 3 or 4 apples, no kiwi, though the female vine is flowering in a few places, the male one isn't.

But it really sucks for the farmers. 98% of the crop lost, cherry, and apples in the NW area of the state. It makes me appreciate things like my raspberries and strawberries more, being as how their success doesn't hinge on a narrow spring window.

[intothenew]

You can trick those trees and kiwis. Shade the trunks during late winter and early spring. Place a wide white washed/painted board on the South side of the trunk, that's for the Northern hemisphere folk. That simply makes them a little more lazy to wake up in spring, keeps the trunk/vine from warming and the sap from rising.