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A notably wet June is delaying the ripening of Saskatoon berries for many farmers across Saskatchewan, says the province’s fruit crops specialist.
“Normally you’d already be in the thick of harvest for Saskatoons, but it looks like we’re going to be another week or maybe more in some cases, and it depends where you are in the province,” said Forrest Scharf in an interview with Global News.
Scharf says the cooler spring temperatures and significant rainfall over the past few weeks have delayed the development of many crops, including Saskatoon berries.
“We sort of experienced about four or five different winters, and I think it may have sort of physiologically primed the plants to hold off just in case we were to get another cold period,” he said.
Different areas may see the crop advance before others, said Scharf, adding that those in the southwest are likely more advanced than the crops in the northeastern areas of the province.
Scharf adds that Saskatoons saw an unusually extended harvest season last year, with crops harvested into August due to cooler nighttime temperatures, but it is too soon to tell whether that will happen again this year.
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Peter Rhodes farms several different kinds of berries over 30 acres at his farm just south of Saskatoon. While he is noticing a slight delay with his Saskatoon berries, he notes his haskaps are growing significantly larger than normal.
“It’s a good crop, and they’re a bit bigger berries than normal this year,” said Rhodes.
“We don’t grow a lot; it’s not my favourite berry. The birds tell me when they’re ready because they love them. If you sneeze, they fall off.”
Scharf says the haskaps, which typically ripen earlier than other berries, are doing notably well this year, likely due to higher moisture levels, which mimic the plant’s origins in Japan.
“Which, of course, typically has more rainfall than what we would experience here in Saskatchewan, and so some of those plants are probably naturally over eons of time selected for having a moisture environment,” said Scharf.
Despite the delay in his Saskatoons, Rhodes is not concerned.
“We’re governed by the calendar, but the plants are governed by the weather, aren’t they?” he said.
“It’ll be a good season for picking, and it’ll be easy picking, the Saskatoons especially. I mean, there’s plenty on, and there’s a reasonable height to pick, and people enjoy picking them.”
Meanwhile, some farmers are noticing that their strawberries are struggling with the increased moisture.
“My fields were basically too wet, and May was too windy, so this year has presented some unique challenges that other years wouldn’t normally do,” said Charles Sudom, president of the Saskatchewan Fruit Growers Association, who farms near Avonlea, Sask.
Sudom also notes that his sour cherry crops are unlikely to come up at all due to the previous months’ windy conditions.
“I think the blossoms and timing of the wind really impacted that negatively, and to be honest, I’m actually quite surprised that we do have the Saskatoon crop with all the wind we had this spring with the blossoms,” he said.
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