Crops arrive early for picking in Kansas

It’s peach pickin’ time in Kansas.

At area orchards, berry farms and “you-pick” farms, most crops are coming in two weeks early.

Scott Beck at Beck’s Farms in Newton said Thursday that they have been picking peaches for two weeks now. Beck, who also grows tomatoes, apricots and cherries, said he has never seen a crop ready this early before.

“I’m not the conductor on this train,” Beck said. “I just have to run along with what happens.”

The early crops can be attributed to the mild weather in 2012.

“We had a warm spring, so everything bloomed earlier,” Sedgwick County horticulture agent Rebecca McMahon said. “We didn’t have a late freeze, luckily, and continued to have consistently warm temperatures, so everything is pretty much two to four weeks ahead of harvest.

“Fruits are perennials, so they just produce when the weather is right and when they’ve matured.”

At Sargeant’s Berry Farm in Haysville, Gaylord Sargeant grows potatoes, squash, corn, blackberries, peaches and more. Last year’s extreme hot and cold temperatures hurt his crops.

“Last year we froze out completely,” Sargeant said. “We didn’t have anything. And then, when the heat hit, we lost all our vegetables.”

Lance Chastain’s blueberry and blackberry crops at Chautauqua Hills Farm in Chautauqua were hit hard by the abnormally low temperatures in February 2011. This year, he said, the farm’s berries are ready to pick two to three weeks early.

“Blueberries are usually ready for picking by June 10,” Chastain said. “This year, they were ripening in mid-May.”

Sargeant’s crops were ripening early as well. The farm normally doesn’t have sweet corn until July 4, but they have already started selling it, he said.

Gaeddert Farms Sweet Corn opened its stands around the Wichita area on Tuesday. The stands usually open up around July 4.

“It’s the earliest we’ve been out,” employee Staci Ranfeld said. “It was super hot and dry last year. The weather conditions have been better (this year).”

Tamela and Rick Unruh were at Sargeant’s Berry Farm on Thursday picking sand plums to make jelly. Tamela Unruh said her aunt and uncle used to have an orchard, so picking fruit brings back many memories.

“That’s the nice thing about the produce being ready earlier,” she said. “You beat the heat. The weather is still nice.”

The earlier harvests will continue this year as long as Kansas stays “within normal seasonal temperatures,” McMahon said.

If there’s a stretch of hot temperatures this summer, crops won’t ripen as early, and quality will be affected more than anything else.

Conversely, a stretch of below-normal temperatures would slow everything down, and farmers would see a “more normal growing window,” she said.

“I’d be surprised to see a significant cold spell to slow things down,” she said.

Coming up next

Although many fruits and vegetables are ready now, more will be coming soon.

McMahon said pears and apples will be ready next, though they’re usually ready to pick by August. Cucumbers, squash and tomatoes are already in “full swing,” as is sweet corn.

Up next for Sargeant’s Berry Farm are melons, which Sargeant also expects to ripen earlier than usual.

Last year’s weather is still affecting the crops, however. Tamela Unruh said she found peaches at Sargeant’s and another orchard in Belle Plaine to be a little on the small side.

“Peach trees don’t handle stressful conditions as well,” McMahon said. The trees will produce, but some trees will be weaker than others.

There will still be peaches available, however.

Beck’s Farms grows more than 40 varieties of peaches, and the fruit will ripen and be ready to pick at different times of the year, Beck said.

“We’ll be picking peaches right through the summer,” Beck said. “Peach picking is wonderful this time of year.”

This story was originally published June 22, 2012 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Crops arrive early for picking in Kansas."