Few crops in
Norfolk are as profitable as sweet
cherries.
However, few
crops will break a farmer's heart
faster.
That's because
sweet cherries are highly sensitive
to rain and frost.
As it happens,
Norfolk is prone to heavy
thunderstorms when sweet cherries
are at their peak. When that
happens, they split and are
unmarketable.
Norfolk is also
prone to frost when sweet cherry
blossoms are in full bloom. Norfolk
farmers lost a beautiful blossom set
last year thanks to a hard frost at
the end of April.
For every perfect
year, cherry farmers see many more
disappointing ones. However, the
Pais family of Simcoe is trying to
change that.
They are
installing infrastructure at their
orchard east of Simcoe that will
allow them to control the weather.
Soon, one and a half acres of sweet
cherries will be under ribbed
plastic tunnels which will also
allow the family to control their
inputs. If the experiment succeeds,
up to eight acres will be protected
in 2010.
"I can grow 100
acres of sweets and sell every one
of them," Roger Pais said last week.
"I have people asking me for sweet
cherries in October. But when it
rains they crack. How many people do
you know who will eat a cracked
sweet cherry covered in mold? Not
many."
Tony Pais of
Simcoe got the idea during a recent
visit to England. There,
tender-fruit producers crowd their
trees under similar structures. This
reduces the need for pesticides
while maximizing the efficient use
of fertilizer through drip
irrigation.
The plastic
tubing, which stands 17 feet off the
ground, also fends off frost when
blossoms are most vulnerable. During
a hard frost, blossoms can be
further protected through the use of
high-powered fans.
"This is costly,
but in the end, we think it will be
worth it," Pais said. "If it works
well, we'll do well."
Most tender fruit in
Ontario -- which includes plums,
peaches, pears and cherries -- is grown
in the Niagara region. Sweet cherries
have fallen out of favour there in
recent years because of competition from
processed cherries overseas and because
cracking from excessive rain is a
perennial issue.
Len Troup, chair of the Ontario Tender
Fruit Producers Marketing Board, is one
of the largest growers of sweet cherries
in Canada. His orchard near Jordan
covers 20 acres.
He
thinks the Pais family will do well with
their experiment so long as they
concentrate on roadside sales and local
markets. However, Troup doesn't like
their chances of competing with growers
in British Columbia, Washington state,
and Oregon who produce in much larger
volumes thanks to a favourable climate.
"If you try to grow volumes of this
where you have to compete with west
coast cherries in chain stores on price
and quality, you'd probably get killed,"
Troup said. "Sweet cherries are a
high-risk, high-reward crop. When
everything goes right with sweet
cherries, nothing pays better. But you
have to be prepared to take the big
nothing years with the good years. It's
gut wrenching to lose a crop just before
you get to harvest it."
Heading into this experiment, the Pais
family has no idea how their costs will
relate to their income.
"This is a gamble," Roger Pais said.
"But then, life is a gamble. It may work
for us or it may not. We'll see."
