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Latest Round of Cold Damages More West MI Fruit Crops

clconroy
/
morgueFile

The latest round of cold temperatures following an unseasonably warm stretch earlier in the year is being blamed for wiping out some fruit crops in West Michigan.Alvin Blok tells The Grand Rapids Press (http://bit.ly/Ksj8k5 ) that a cold snap early Sunday as well as below-freezing temperatures earlier all but wiped out his family's 45-acre apple crop. He says he suspects peaches they grown on a few acres of the Blok Orchard also were decimated.
 
Jerry Sietsema, owner of Sietsema Orchards, says his 15-acre apple crop and small peach crop were wiped out by the weekend freeze.
 
Both orchards are in Kent County.
 
Weather-related damage has been reported earlier to the cherry crop in Michigan's northern Lower Peninsula as well as the juice grape crop in southwestern Michigan.

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