Jun. 23—TRAVERSE CITY — Northern Michigan cherries are coming early this year, say local farmers who expect to begin their harvest one to two weeks ahead of schedule.

“I’ve never seen them come in this early,” said Art McManus, owner of McManus Southview Orchards. “And I’ve been at it for about 60 years.

“We’ll have cherries ready for the National Cherry Festival, and [we plan on] opening to the public on Tuesday.”

McManus said his orchard’s sweet cherries will be ready for harvest around Friday, June 28, and his tart cherries should be ready about a week and a half later.

Jack King, vice president of crop protection at King Orchards, also said that he is expecting an early harvest, and the amount of sweet cherries coming in “looks spectacular.”

“The first couple weeks of July will be excellent for families looking to pick their own local cherries — 4-year-olds will be out in the orchard painting their faces with the low branches,” King said.

Not only are local farmers anticipating an early cherry harvest, they are anticipating a bountiful one.

McManus said that as long as the area doesn’t experience too much inclement weather, he expects his orchard will produce about 1 million pounds of sweet and tart cherries.

“The branches are already bending down with the weight [of the fruit],” King said. “They are loading up. It looks like tons and tons of cherries are coming.”

Kat Paye, executive director of the National Cherry Festival, said growers are definitely getting into “full harvest swing.”

“Which is wonderful. It means we are going to have Traverse City cherries at the National Cherry Festival. So when you see fresh cherry booths at the opening of the festival, those will be Traverse City cherries.”

Keeping cherries healthy

This year’s warm and wet spring has had a profound impact on the local cherry crop, according to McManus, who said that nearly 4 inches of spring precipitation helped facilitate the early harvest.

“We were really nervous this winter when it didn’t get cold,” King said. “We thought we were going to be in an early-bloom, heavy-frost situation. But it stayed cold, and the frost stayed in hibernation. When the cherries came into bloom, we had just fabulous weather. The flowers were open for a long time, the bees were flying, it all just worked out really nicely. Now with all this high heat and high moisture, I expect really big, sweet and delicious fruit.”

King said the cherry trees love all the rain they’ve been getting because the moisture allows them to grow faster than usual, but that the cherries themselves don’t necessarily appreciate all the precipitation.

The recent high humidity raised many farmers’ concerns about a cherry fungus called European brown rot, which Michigan sweet cherries are particularly susceptible to, according to King, who said that successfully growing sweet cherries in Michigan is almost completely dependent on being able to stay ahead of that fungus.

“As the leaves grow, they hang all around the fruit, which grows in clusters and pulls the branches down,” he said. “So when we have lots of moisture and humidity, it shields the fruit from the sun, and you don’t get a lot of UV in there. It also shields the fruit from the wind, so the cherries are in these slow drying cocoons. [This results] in a fruit that is soft and sweet and generating sugar. Those are really good conditions for mold.”

To prevent European brown rot, King said his farm trims their canopies and spaces out their branches, which allows for better airflow to the cherries and stymies mold growth.

While European brown rot tends to affect sweet cherries, tart cherries are more susceptible to another disease called cherry leaf spot, King said.

“When you have a rainy, hot and humid year, you’re in what we call a high-pressure situation,” he said. “When you get a bad cherry leaf spot infection, those leaves will turn yellow and start to fall off, and the trees will struggle to gather enough energy to ripen their fruit off.”

Taking precautions and preventative measures can help reduce a lot of the risk associated with cherry leaf spot and European brown rot, he said.

“It’s important to make sure you have a good management program and are getting your trees lots of nutrients to ensure that your orchards stay lush and green and beautiful.”

Supporting local farmers

McManus said that his picking season usually lasts around five weeks, and that he thinks this year’s early harvest will have a positive impact on local farms.

“But we are struggling with our prices,” he said. “Quite a few farmers are going out of business. The cost of fuel and fertilizer and everything has gotten so high, it’s hard to make it. And it’s hard to bring in young growers. They’re just not coming into the business.”

Local orchards are getting pushed out since they now have to compete with foreign cherry imports from other countries such as Poland and Turkey, who produce cheaper products and pay their workers less, he said.

“It’s difficult [for some local growers] to compete. Consumers can help us all by buying local cherries. Our cherries are fresh. You can come in and get them right off the trees. It doesn’t get any fresher than that.”

Paye said the majority of National Cherry Festival products, from the cherry pies to the jams and jellies, are made from Traverse City [tart] cherries, and recommended that if someone wants to know whether a cherry product is made from local cherries, to simply ask the seller.

Trevor Tkach, director of Traverse City Tourism, said that having fresh cherries adds more energy to the local farmers markets and provides great opportunities for families to take part in U-pick experiences.

“[Traverse City] is synonymous with cherries,” Tkach said. “Everyone’s annual question is ‘Are the cherries going to be ready for the National Cherry Festival?’ Well, clearly that will happen this year.

“It’s great that people will be able to come up and taste the fruits of our farmers’ labor early. We love it.”