Out in the field, most crops have been off to a good start. There was a week or two of some downtime on planting due to the wet weather, but some of that is starting to resume. Harvest of peas, greens, and other spring vegetables is underway. Asparagus harvest is nearing the end with an early start this season. Spring vegetable transplants are generally doing well although some have suffered from the extended period of waterlogged soils. Fruit crops continue to be early! Tart cherries have finished up harvest and we are just starting to harvest the first early blueberries. This is roughly 10-14 days ahead of normal. 

The periodical cicadas are probably the biggest issue of the moment. They are generally just annoying, however, for crops like apples they can be destructive as well. They emerged here in mid-May and are still around in full force. They have many favorite trees with apples being on the list. I have literally seen 100s of them covering apple trees. They are now laying eggs and do that on small limbs or branches about 3/8” inch or less in diameter. They lay egges on the underside of branches and it looks like a sewing machine went down about 3” of the branch. For many branches, this is enough to weaken them and they become brittle and break off of the tree. Unfortunately, many of the small branches are the ones that have 2-3 nice apples hanging on the end.  They generally will not cause long term damage on mature trees, but young trees especially need to be protected as they can kill significant portions or even all of a small tree.  Check out the article from the last issue on cicada management for more details. 

Since late-April we have been on the rebound for rainfall.  Since April 26 through the end of May we have gotten 11.15” of rain. Fortunately for us, this has been spread out through various storm systems and we have avoided any of the extreme events. We have still had some very intense downpours and multiple, multi-day rainfall events that have left the topsoil saturated at times. Temperatures have been up and down with a few cool periods but then followed by some intense heat and humidity with highs around 90 degrees. We are wrapping up the month with nearly picture perfect weather with a week of sun, low humidity, and highs between 75 to 80 degrees.