Q Was the local apple crop damaged by the past weekend’s ice storm?
A Bob Karr, owner of The Orchard, said, “I talked to several people including the Extension Office, and right now we had some damage on some Japanese plums, but that was all.
“What happens is the ice that we had Friday and Saturday encapsulates the buds that aren’t opened up and holds them at 32 degrees. When the ice melted off the flowers, what few flowers there were, they were just as bright as can be.
“Some have tight clusters which means they haven’t opened up yet. Peaches are in what is called swollen bud and have not opened up yet. It looks like we are OK. I think we’re going to be in good shape with that. I think we’re in good shape so far.
“There will be a few of the ornamental flowers that will be damaged like the Bradford pear. We did have a little bit of limb damage, but not much. Mainly it was the ornamental trees.”
Stacy Flanner of Hetlinger Developmental Services, which keeps an orchard and has a yearly apple festival, said those tree are healthy.
“I think ours are fine,” he said. “Our trees actually haven’t budded yet. There’s some trees that have started developing some leaves, but they are not budding yet.”