The Great Leelanau Cherry Disaster of 2024

Left Behind by Mark Smith

The Leelanau Ticker shares the sad saga of one of the worst growing seasons for Northern Michigan sweet cherries in recent memory:

In a summary, it was a disaster,” says Philip Hallstedt, who owns the Northport U-pick cherry farm Hallstedt Homestead Cherries. “For sweet cherries, rain, wind whip, and humidity set the stage for high infestation of European brown rot and spotted wing drosophila. A fellow farmer shared that 90 percent of his sweet cherry harvest was lost – which is tough, as sweet cherries are the cash crop for many growers to sustain their operations, given that tart prices are so low.”

Brown rot is a fungal infection that attacks flowering cherry trees and hampers their ability to produce fruit. The disease thrives off high moisture levels and spreads in windy conditions, making this year’s humid, rainy, breezy spring a perfect storm for mass cherry crop impact. Meanwhile, spotted wing drosophila (SWD) is an invasive fruit fly species native to Asia but first identified in Michigan in the fall of 2010. Since then, the pest has become arguably the top concern for Michigan cherry growers, according to Michigan State University Extension. SWD attack ripening fruit and lay eggs inside, not only compromising cherry quality but also triggering further proliferation and infestation. Per MSU, a single SWD female “is capable of laying 300+ eggs,” which can then develop into adults “in as little as eight days.”

To add insult to injury, the 2024 cherry season actually started off promisingly. According to Hallstedt, cherry farmers typically experience what is known as “June drop,” where a cherry tree “senses its crop load” and then sheds unpollinated or damaged cherries as an act of selecting which cherries have the best chance at reaching maturity. This year, June drop was atypically small, which cleared the way for what might have become one of the biggest sweet cherry crops in recent memory.