Record rains and a late-season frost cost New Hampshire growers nearly $13 million in lost crops this past spring, according to a recent survey.
The wild spring weather’s impact is still being felt, with limited availability of several popular Christmas tree species at the State Forest Nursery in Boscawen.
In a recent survey by the UNH Cooperative Extension, 70 Granite State growers with more than 1,000 acres reported fruit crop loss totals of just under $10 million. Vegetable crop losses totaled more than $3 million.
The survey did not take into account lost revenue from associated farm sales — additional purchases by customers who come to pick fruit — which for many farms can bring in as much or more as the crops themselves.
UNH Extension field specialist Jeremy DeLisle, who conducted the survey, said a frost on the night of May 18 and into the morning of May 19 caused significant damage to fruit crops throughout New Hampshire.
Losses in apples, pears, European plums and sweet cherries ranged from 50% to nearly 100% of the crops, with a handful of orchards located at higher elevations faring better than most others, DeLisle estimated.
“Many growers in the state face a total apple crop loss…for some, this is the first time in over 40 years they have had no apple crop to sell,” he wrote.
New Hampshire Fruit Growers Association President Madison Hardy said growers’ difficulties began with that severe freeze.
Many growers lost entire fruit crops or had limited harvests, Hardy said, with virtually no peach and plum crops this year, while cherry and pear harvests varied. Many orchards were unable to market apples.
“A lot of the colder regions of the state had a 100% crop loss,” Hardy said in a statement.” While some orchards in warmer areas did have some apples, most of them were so damaged from the frost that they were not marketable. Generally, it was still a total loss statewide, just in two different ways.”
A ‘disaster’ for apples
In DeLisle’s report, Ken Merrill, a fifth-generation apple farmer in Londonderry, described 2023 weather events as a “disaster to the farm and the owners and employees.”
“We have never taken loans for the business,” Merrill said in a statement. “Projects around the farm are funded through retained earnings and hard work. We now face an extended period of time with little or no income, from January 2023 when we finished selling the 2022 crop, until August 2024, when we will be selling next year’s crop, if there is one.
Despite these setbacks, Hardy reports the industry and its growers are “doing all right,” with growers getting creative and focusing on other crops or activities like pumpkins and corn mazes in lieu of more traditional autumn traditions like apple picking.
Some fruit growers provided fruits and other items to each other for sale at one another’s farms.
“People made the best of it,” Hardy said in a statement. “The farming community is tight-knit and people helped each other out.”
Insurance helped some growers cover the losses caused by these weather events, and the Fruit Growers Association is working on getting aid to farmers across the state.
Hardy said New Hampshire fruit farmers are already looking ahead to next year.
“The wound is healed. Farmers are in a positive mood and moving forward to next year.”
Christmas tree seedlings
Adverse weather conditions also affected the State Forest Nursery in Boscawen.
The nursery, which is now accepting online seedling orders for spring 2024, announced this week that quantities of conifer species will be extremely limited this year, including several popular Christmas tree varieties.
“This past season’s unusual weather had an adverse impact on the quantity of seedlings we are able to offer this year,” said nursery manager Billy Kunelius.
“However, this is an opportunity for people to plant other tree and shrub species they might not have previously considered, creating more diverse landscapes that benefit birds, pollinators and wildlife.”
The nursery features several additional shrub and hardwood tree species that have not been offered in recent years, Kunelius said, including red-berried elder, winterberry holly and yellow birch.
There will also be increased availability of the “pollinator pack,” which includes five seedlings each of beach plum, crabapple, gray dogwood, nannyberry and Virginia rose.
The popular pack, which debuted in 2021, sells out quickly each year, Kunelius said.
Customers can order seedlings from the nursery’s online store, buynhseedlings.com. The site offers real-time inventory of available species and order confirmation.
Approximately 50 species of bare-root seedlings are offered for sale each year; all are grown from seed on site at the nursery.
