Cherry Farmers work on their cherry orchards year-round!

Mike, of our very own Mike’s U-Pick, was interviewed by Harvest Time at the end of January 2022 while he was out in the cherry orchard planting young new cherry trees. Harvest Time posted about this on their Facebook page; pointing out that while cherries are available for picking for only a short amount of time (4 to 6 weeks), cherry farmers must tend to their orchards year-round. Farmers need to check the overall health of the cherry trees periodically, check for pests, inspect the irrigation lines, prune the trees, remove some trees; certainly water the trees. Mike removed about 150 trees last year that were no longer producing well. On the day of the interview, Mike was working on planting young new trees, mostly Coral Champagne and the ever-popular White Rainier varieties.

Anatomy of Planting a New Cherry Tree (photos of Mike by Harvest Time)

Harvest Time also pointed out in their Facebook post the following interesting facts: new trees are planted about 1 foot below ground, a milk-carton type box is placed around the trunks at ground level to protect them from rabbits and other chewers, and it takes about 5 years before the trees will produce enough cherries for the public to come picking.

Visit our website: www.MikesUpick.com

Visit Mike’s U-Pick on the Harvest Time website: https://harvestforyou.com/mikes-u-pick-cherries/