Cherry harvest down by between 20% and 30% this year

This year between 20% and 30% fewer cherries have been produced compared with last year. The reason behind it, of course, is the weather.
 
Hermann Hotz, the president of the Zug Cherry Interest Group, explained that most cherries in the canton have now been gathered in, with just a few in higher-lying areas still on the trees. “During blossom time we had a few nights with frost and we had the odd cold spell even as late as May this year,” he said. “The cooler weather also meant that harvest took place some ten days later than usual, at the end of June.”
 
As to the period of hot weather, Hotz, who is himself a fruit-grower in Baar-Inwil, said that this had led to the fruit ripening very quickly. In fact it meant that, this year, there was only a two-and-a-half week period between the early varieties ripening and the later ones. “The size of the individual cherries this year is also noticeably smaller than last year, though one should remember that last year was a record one for cherries,” he said.
 
This year fruit growers also had problems with Drosophila suzukii, a pest vinegar fly which likes ripe fruit. “At temperatures between 25°C and 30°C, the males become infertile, but a female can lay up to 300 eggs,” he said.
 
The good thing is that the quality of the fruit this year is excellent, very aromatic and sweet. And not just of those ready to eat but also those destined for the distilleries, too. Raspberries and bilberries have also ripened earlier in this hot spell.
 
As to what the harvest of other table fruits will be like this year, Louis Suter of the Cantonal Advisory Centre for Fruit-Growing was unable to say. One would know more in August.
 
The second photograph was taken on the occasion of Aegeri Cherry Day last weekend.