Traverse City cherry, apple grower optimistic new climate program will address soil health

Raul Gomez, operations manager of Wunsch Farms in Traverse City, said changing climate patterns have shown the importance of accurately applying water and nutrients to the soil.

EAST LANSING, Mich. — From north to south along West Michigan, sandy soils border the coast between Lake Michigan and the state’s interior. This region is home to Traverse City, known as the ‘Cherry Capital of the World’.

Michigan produces about 70% of the nation’s tart cherries, and of those, Traverse City produces about 40%. Cherry trees prefer sandy soils on rolling hills to grow. Sour cherries do best when they have several cold winter months to prepare for temperate summers.

Michigan produced about 133 million pounds of sour cherries last year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service. This was down from around £180 million in 2022 and £202 million in 2018.

Part of the reason for such varying production totals is due to changing climate patterns, said Raul Gomez, operations manager of Wunsch Farms in Traverse City. The farm is a sixth-generation cherry and apple farm located on the Old Mission Peninsula.

“We’ve had years where we’re getting everything ready for bloom, and we get a spring freeze where we lose 25% to 50% of our crop,” Gomez says. “The big year I remember was 2012. We had a very cold winter and a big warm-up in late March and early April. We had temperatures of 60 degrees for two weeks and then we had a huge snowstorm that took a good portion of our crop.”

The atypically warm winter Michigan has experienced this year — with record temperatures in some parts of the state in February — has raised concerns that fruit trees will leaf out early and damage crops. Gomez said the trees at Wunsch Farms have experienced enough cool temperatures to prevent early budding, but noted he knows other growers in the state whose crops have already been affected by the sporadic temperature changes.

As Wunsch Farm moves into the spring and summer months, Gomez says he is starting to focus on managing water during the season.

“We are fortunate to be surrounded by water,” he said. “We must be good stewards of our land and environment. It has been important for us to figure out how to retain moisture in our soils and how to water where and when it makes sense – and not just overwater or water just because we can.”

To conserve water and retain nutrients in the soil, Gomez says he tries to find ways to prevent water from seeping through the sandy soil where the farm’s cherry trees grow, while also preparing for extended periods without precipitation.

“It’s become very unpredictable,” Gomez said. “We tend to work with patterns and timing, and historically we have been able to look at where we are in our seasons to help us manage our orchards. That has really changed over the years.”

Due to the mild and relatively dry winter Michigan had this year, Gomez said orchards will rely on the irrigation system at a higher rate than usual at the start of the growing season.

Gomez has worked with MSU partners such as Nikki Rothwell, coordinator of the Northwest Michigan Horticulture Research Center and an MSU Extension fruit specialist, to develop strategies to ensure the company’s orchards remain well cared for. He has also worked with Emily Lavely, an MSU Extension tree fruit educator for the west-central region of Michigan. She has helped Gomez establish several practices to mitigate the effects of the evolving climatic obstacles that Wunsch Farms has experienced.

Working with MSU AgBioResearch scientists including tree fruit pathologist George Sundin and entomologist Julianna Wilson – among many others – Lavely has provided knowledge on how to address problems on a holistic scale.

In conversations with tree fruit growers, Lavely said there is a desire to better understand how we can accurately apply water and nutrients so they don’t wash away or get stuck in sandy soil and trees can take full advantage of them.

However, monitoring root systems is more difficult than observing other aspects of tree growth, partly due to their limited accessibility because they are underground. Combine the extremely dry and wet periods Michigan has experienced, and it becomes even more challenging to predict when to add the right amount of water and nutrients to the soil, Lavely said.

She said building an irrigation system is a strategy she has seen work to effectively navigate back and forth between dry and wet conditions.

“If you apply fertilizer, but it doesn’t rain and you don’t have irrigation, the nutrients can’t get into the root system because most nutrients move with water,” says Lavely. “On the other hand, if you apply fertilizer and there is a lot of rain, everything is washed out of the root zone.

“It is critical that we try to manage the water and nutrient resources we have, while being aware of weather conditions that could impact what we do.”

Earlier this year, the establishment of the Agricultural Climate Resiliency Program was announced. The program is a partnership between the Michigan Plant Coalition, the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and Michigan State University that will address long-term climate and water issues that impact most, if not all, plant commodities of the state.

On March 12, 2024, Gomez, along with MSU AgBioResearch Director George Smith, MSU Extension Director Quentin Tyler and several other Michigan farmers, testified before the Michigan House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture and Rural Development and Natural Resources about his concerns about the market seen. farm, and how this program could impact them.

Because many of the techniques he employs are supported by models and research from MSU scientists, Gomez said he is optimistic that this program will not only provide new solutions to some of the problems he currently faces on the farm, but give him will also enable you to remain proactive. in securing the farm’s crops for the future.

In addition to soil health, another topic Gomez is interested in is how pollinators are affected by changing temperature patterns. Bees don’t like to fly when temperatures don’t rise above 50 degrees, he said, so securing out-of-state bees for the season while trying to monitor temperatures could become more complex.

“Not much has been done on these climate change issues, so it’s definitely an area that could benefit from different studies,” Gomez said. “From there, we can continue to expand our toolbox of strategies we can use to address some of these emerging climate and water challenges.”