STANTON, Mich. — It’s the color Terry Anderson loves to see this time of year.
“You see how it’s nice and green? If that had been frozen already, that would be black,” said Anderson, who co-owns Anderson & Girls in Stanton.
On Monday, he explained to FOX 17 that the center of his apple and peach clusters looked as they should, even after three days of overnight lows that posed a risk to the harvest.
READ MORE: Frost and freeze on cold surfaces the next few nights
“It would have to get down in the mid 20s right now to hurt anything, and they’re forecasting like 30, 31 degrees, so I think we’re good,” said Anderson.
Anderson hopes it’s a sign that he will not need to run frost fans or use his irrigation system much this spring to protect his crop from the bouts of cold that West Michigan occasionally experiences between April and May.
He says the stress of dealing with the fluctuations in weather often keeps up farmers.
“The emotional part of it is hard,” said Anderson. “[You’re] worried about the frost. I was even up last night checking my thermometers.”
Theresa Sisung holds a similar outlook for the season.
“I think we're actually still in really good shape,” said Sisung, an industry relations specialist with the Michigan Farm Bureau.
Sisung explains that while warm temperatures earlier in the month put the fruit growing season ahead of schedule, no flowers bloomed, which is when serious damage could occur like in 2012.
She notes that any additional freezes or other unseasonable weather could change that outlook though.
“I think once we get to that second week of May, it's going to give us a much better idea of where we're at crop wise and how we handled,” said Sisung.
In the meantime, Anderson says he’ll wait and wish for conditions that he loves to see.
“We don’t need anymore cold, we don’t need any more 80 degrees,” said Anderson.
