A particularly wet June is causing a delay in the ripening of Saskatoon berries for numerous farmers across Saskatchewan, according to 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,” Forrest Scharf told Global News in an interview.
Scharf explained that cooler spring temperatures and substantial rainfall over recent weeks have hindered 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 remarked.
Different areas may see the crop progress at varying rates, Scharf noted, suggesting that those in the southwest are likely more advanced than crops in the province’s northeastern regions.
Scharf also mentioned that Saskatoons experienced an unusually long harvest season last year, with crops being picked into August due to cooler nighttime temperatures. However, he added it is too early to tell if this will recur this year.
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Peter Rhodes, who cultivates several types of berries on his 30-acre farm just south of Saskatoon, has observed a slight delay with his Saskatoon berries. However, he noted that his haskaps are growing considerably larger than usual.
“It’s a good crop, and they’re a bit bigger berries than normal this year,” Rhodes stated.
“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 indicated that haskaps, which typically ripen earlier than other berries, are performing exceptionally well this year, likely due to higher moisture levels that emulate 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,” Scharf explained.
Despite the delay affecting his Saskatoons, Rhodes remains unconcerned.
“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 finding that their strawberries are struggling due to 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 mentioned that his sour cherry crops are unlikely to yield anything this year due to the windy conditions in previous months.
“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 concluded.
