EMMETT, Idaho — Cherry trees in Emmett are blooming 10 to 12 days earlier than usual this spring due to warm winter weather, extending the window of risk for frost damage ahead of the annual Emmett Cherry Festival.
Emmett Neighborhood Reporter Greenlee Clark visited Gem Orchards on Tuesday afternoon to check in with owner Lance Phillips, who is already seeing blooms ahead of schedule.
"This year, we're 10-12 days earlier, that means just that much longer of frost where we could potentially lose stuff," Phillips said.
Phillips said the early blooms are driven by soil temperature, not just air temperature. Because the winter was short, the soil warmed up early, waking the trees up.
Those extra days before the usual last-frost date — which Phillips said is typically around May 9 — mean a longer period of potential risk. If temperatures dip too low while trees are blooming, entire sections of fruit can be lost overnight.
"The difference between 24 and 28 is a 10% loss at 28, 90% loss at 24. So a few degrees makes all the difference," explained Phillips.
To combat the cold, the orchard uses large wind machines that push warm air down to the ground, which can raise the temperature around the trees by 3 or 4 degrees.
Watch to learn more about current cherry farming conditions.
Despite the risks, Phillips said people should not be worried about a shortage of local cherries at the festival.
"No. So we've heard that for like the last 10 years that I've been here. That there are never local cherries. It's not true," Phillips said.
Phillips said his strategy is designed to prevent shortages, which includes expanding his operation from 400 to over 3,000 cherry trees. The orchard now grows 11 different varieties of cherries — up from just two originally — including Burlat, Titan, Chelan, Black Pearl, Santina, Rainier, Bing, and Lapin.
"I planted them with the intention of supplying for the cherry festival, having an early cherry, a mid cherry, a late cherry, so that we could always make sure that the cherry festival has cherries," Phillips said.
Phillips said the current early bloom situation is very similar to 2016, when they were picking early cherries by May 20 and finishing their late cherries during the Cherry Festival.
The trees at Gem Orchards are specifically pruned to be under 8 feet tall — what Phillips calls "Lance height" — so families and kids can pick fruit without needing ladders. The trunks are even color-coded for U-Pick customers: yellow trunks for Rainiers, pink for Bings, white for Lapins, and green for Santinas and Black Pearls.
Water concerns loom for next year
While Emmett expects to have enough water this year, Phillips is among the farmers warning that the situation could change fast.
Phillips explained that in a good snowpack year, farmers irrigate with "flood water" (runoff) through June, which doesn't count against their "storage water" allotment in the reservoirs. This year, because of low snowpack, they will have to start using storage water much earlier.
The only reason they are not short on water this year is that almost half of their water is still stored in the reservoirs from last year. But other areas are already feeling the impact.
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"We could be looking at catastrophic water cutbacks, 50, 60, 70% cutbacks on our water next year if we don't get more snowpack," Phillips said.
As a board member for the Emmett Irrigation District and a former professional landscaper, Phillips encourages neighbors to change their watering habits now to reduce use and help plants develop stronger roots. He advised watering deeply but less frequently — for example, watering Monday morning and evening, then skipping four days — to train grass roots to grow 2 to 3 inches deeper.
"Because we're in a desert, you need to treat it water as one of those commodities, as we like to say in the farming: whiskey's for drinking and water's for fighting," Phillips said.
Gem Orchards, which practices regenerative agriculture and operates as a minimal-spray orchard, plans to open its farm stand around the first of June.
The stand will stay open into September, offering U-Pick fruit, apples, cider, jams, juices, jellies, syrups, cut flowers, and raw milk from local vendors. The orchard also grows 23 different varieties of peaches, with a new variety ripening every week from the 4th of July through the end of September.
The Emmett Cherry Festival kicks off the second full week of June. For more information, you can click here.
To learn more about Gem Orchards, you can click here.
