Michigan Apple Growers Wary Of Weather
March 20, 2013 
Michigan growers suffered great losses in spring 2012, when temperatures rose into the mid-80s and apple trees came out of the dormant state four weeks early, which was then followed by several frosts.
“We lost 90% of our crop last year,” Gretchen Mensing, communications and marketing manager for the Michigan Apple Committee in Lansing, tells the Jackson Citizen Patriot.
Jeff Andresen, assistant professor of meteorology/climatology for Michgan State University and the state climatologist for Michigan, predicts colder than typical temperatures for the next two weeks, but warmer temperatures by late spring and early summer.
“The key is how rapidly the trees come out of their dormant states, and how many freeze events we might experience once that happens. Fruit growers know this because Michigan has produced fruit commercially more than 150 years, so we have a long track record,” he tells the Jackson Citizen Patriot.
For more on this story, visit http://www.mlive.com/news/jackson/index.ssf/2013/03/jackson-area_apple_grower_keep.html
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