How the Cold Weather This Week Affected Michigan’s Crops

When I was a kid I lived and worked on my family's grape vineyard in Missouri. The grapes on that farm were concord grapes, under contract to Welch's, for grape juice and jelly. And the worst thing that could happen (and it did - at least twice, while I was there) was a hard freeze, late into spring, that would take out all the budding grapes. Bad news. After going through that, I was pulling for all the fruit growers in Michigan this week when we had those hard freezes. Looks like there was good news and bad news for them.

According to MLive.com, the MSU Extension folks say the vineyards in Michigan sustained some damage, but it looks like they'll still produce grapes.

It looks like there's a mix of damage to the apple crop and it will be down by several million bushels in Michigan this year (out of a normal 30 million bushel harvest).

Strawberries and blueberries should be generally OK.

Peaches and cherries might have been hit the hardest. And the areas that came out best were up north - which, because it's naturally colder up there, saw less damage because the fruit wasn't as far along in development. Makes sense.

Here's the full story.