FENNVILLE, Mich. — Gold Coast Farms, a 112-acre farm in Fennville, grows peaches, apples and raspberries. This year, they planted about 1,200 new peach trees.
But with the extremely dry conditions we saw for so long, they’ve had to rely on watering the crops themselves to keep them alive.
This week, however, brought a change of pace for Gold Coast Farms, which measured about an inch and a half of rain.
“We were needing rain badly. The trees were showing it, yellow leaves on peaches. We work our peach orchard, as you can see, and it just makes a world of difference on the vigor of the tree and really helps for dry weather,” Scott Phelps at Gold Coast Farms told FOX 17 Saturday. “It was a Godsend for us, you know, we were hanging in there.”
Phelps and his crew have done what they can since April to keep these young trees alive.
“We hold a bowl around them and then put mulch…my dad’s been a trooper with watering,” Phelps said. “I mean, he waters three hours every morning, three hours every night.”
Plus, he explained how laying down hay as mulch can help save grass by bringing it back to life.
“It’ll hold that moisture…The sun won’t dry that ground out. If you just put a gallon of water on the ground, it’s gone in ten minutes,” he added.
Meanwhile, the apples on the trees look small now, but Phelps says they’ll be ready in time to harvest.
“I’m happy, but this apple is going to fall off. These little guys are going to keep dropping, but size-wise, I think we are fine. I’m not that concerned,” he said.
Phelps did say there is the chance for smaller fruit this year if the dry weather continues, but on the plus side, he said the fruit often tastes better after a dry year.
