GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. | Warm days and cool nights have Grand Junction-area peach growers harvesting fruit a full 10 days early.
Farmers in the peach-growing community of Palisade noticed their early varieties of the fruit ripened sooner than usual, and Dennis Clark of Clark Family Orchards says cool nights and warm days helped, the Daily Sentinel reported (https://bit.ly/1INChGt ).
“It’s been a crammed spring and early summer,” he said. “We started early and it’s been nonstop. Now the apricots and cherries and all the fruit is in great shape. That’s very unusual.”
Early varieties are about a fourth the size of late-season varieties.
Lance Davis of Nana’s Fruit and Jam Shack says a warm winter and gentle spring kept most of the area’s fruit crops alive.
“When there’s a full crop, you almost don’t know how to act,” he said.
Pat Sherer of Aloha Organic Fruit said the orchard is thriving and that she’s expecting a particularly productive crop.
“They’re small, sweet and tasty, so we must be doing something right,” she said.
Peaches will be harvested and sold until about mid-September.
Information from: The Daily Sentinel, https://www.gjsentinel.com