COLUMBIA COUNTY, Pa. — Growing fruit is a large part of the business at Rohrbach's Farm near Catawissa.
"We rely on this for our customers who come in to buy in the store and we have this hopefully you pick this year, we should have enough," said Adam Orlando, Rohrbach's Farm Orchard Manager.
The weather plays a big part in the fruit-growing process and unfortunately, Mother Nature isn't always reliable.
While many of us are enjoying this winter's warmer weather fruit trees need a certain amount of chilling hours in order to produce new buds.
"It's roughly from 47 degrees to about freezing that they need over a cumulative period of time through the winter to be able to grow new buds next year," said Orlando.
Adam Orlando is the Orchard Manager at Rohrbach's Farm. He believes this year's temps have been pretty close to that but it could be colder.
"It usually takes around 7-9 weeks in a good winter, so if we have a little extra time," said Orlando.
Orlando says fruit trees can handle the fluctuating temperatures but too much warm weather too early is a concern.
He calls it a false spring.
"The trees will get their accumulated hours and be cold enough but then wake up a little too early and then have a cold frost that will wipe out all the buds. That could definitely be a possibility for this year," said Orlando.
Orlando says that would take out much of the fruit crop.
Warmer weather could also affect the insect population on the farm.
"Cold snap usually takes out some of the life cycle of the insects and that's going to probably have a little more pressure than normal," said Orlando.
Orlando is hoping for a few more weeks of cold weather like the groundhog predicted.
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