Apple farmers fend off last cold snap

The hills are ideal for apple farmers in Michigan to grow their crops. The one issue that does pop up is when we hit colder temperatures. Trees that are higher up see warmer temperatures. But as you get down in the lower part of the hills, that's where the colder temperatures tend to be, which isn't ideal for their crop.

"So it's kind of a Goldilocks zone. If you lose this, it's a resource. You're never gonna get back again," Schweitzer Orchards Operations Manager Nick Schweitzer told FOX 17.

Apples have a long history in this family.

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"I'm a fifth-generation grower; we have over 17 different varieties of apples and two varieties of pears," Schweitzer said.

His growing season is just starting, and he is often checking in on his crop.

"This one's a healthy one here because it doesn't look like there's too much brown. Maybe some of the center ones," he explained.

A recent cold snap put a lot of his crop in jeopardy.

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"I mean, 29 [degrees] is concerning. Sometimes you can dip a little bit lower than, you know, the forecast attempt at that point," Schweitzer added.

Schweitzer Orchards has the technology to fend off the frost in Sparta. People passing by can see big fans out in the fields.

"[It] helps pull warmer air down from an inversion layer higher up and warm the area around the trees, those few degrees necessary to prevent any type of damage," Schweitzer said.

He adds they did play a big part in saving this year's crop.

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"Internal browning there, that's damaged internal organs of the flower. So that means this flower's damaged by that cold weather. But if we pull, like, I can see another one that's damaged right here."

According to Michigan State University, our state produces 900 million pounds of apples each year.

"This is actually a really specialized zone. Because you go farther into the state, you get more frost and you don't have that protection of the lake."

This fifth-generation apple farmer is looking forward to this year.

"We only need about 10% of the total flower capacity on each of these trees to be able to have a full crop. So if we do get a little bit of damage, hopefully we can get that bad fruit off and kind of keep what's good," he added.

The farm also added a black rod up in some trees. It is a new pesticide trick that Schweitzer is using this year. He's hoping the pheromones that it releases will prevent moths from attacking his crop so they'll have a better year this year.

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