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Blossomless Fest

Cherries have long been one of the most famous symbols of Door County, but last summer’s dry spell coupled with a harsh winter and spring could make the staple, tart Montmorency cherry a scarce commodity this summer.

Dale Seaquist has spent his entire life working the orchards of Door County at Seaquist Orchards and said he’s not optimistic about this year’s haul.

“A good 80 percent of the blossoms are bad,” Seaquist said. “All-in-all it looks pretty glum.”

Dick Weidman, superintendent at the Door Peninsular Agricultural Research Station, agreed with Seaquist’s assessment, and predicted sweet cherries would fair even worse.

“With sweets it looks like practically none,” he said.

Last summer yielded a bumper crop of 10.5 million pounds of cherries in Door County, but turning out such high yields placed a burden on the trees in a season when rain was in short supply.

“Last year was so dreadfully dry the trees were already under stress heading into the winter,” Seaquist said.

Getting moisture in the summer is key to preparing trees for Wisconsin winters.

“It’s a two-year process,” Weidman explained. “Buds form in late July and August and carry into the next spring. We suspect the buds were not fully formed going into the winter, then you had the January roller coaster ride of drastic temperature fluctuations when we went from 38 degrees to 10 below. The trees didn’t have the energy after the drought. It’s like trying to make a loaf of bread when you have the flour but not the water and the yeast.”

Seaquist said he’s seen a late spring frost do considerable damage to a crop in recent years, but couldn’t recall seeing conditions like these with his trees. But he said there will still be cherries available.

“We’ll have some,” Seaquist said. “We don’t need all the buds to get a decent crop. But if we get 25 percent of last year’s crop we’d be lucky.”

Jon Jarosh said he doesn’t think the lack of cherries will stop any visitors from coming to the peninsula, but some will likely find their traditional Door County vacation incomplete.

“Some people will probably be a little disappointed,” he acknowledged. “But there are still lots of Door County cherry products available.”

While the weather has been harsh on cherries, Weidman said he hasn’t heard of serious problems with another county staple, apples.

“Apples seem to be more resilient,” he said. “Part of that is cherries put out a lot of vegetative growth and leaves, so they’re more susceptible to weather extremes.”

Weidman and Seaquist weren’t ready to speculate on the long-term effects the crop problems would have beyond this summer. A number of cherry trees have been removed in Northern Door due to last summer’s conditions, but Weidman expects the orchards to bounce back.

“There’s adequate soil moisture now, so trees should grow and develop for 2009,” he said. “We just have to get the trees to put out the vegetative growth for next year.”

Though the prognosis for his harvest looked weak in mid-May, Seaquist held out some hope for a small turn-around.

“Give it a few weeks and we’ll have a better idea,” he said. “A couple real nice warm days would sure help a lot.”