After lost season, apple growers are optimistic

Patience is a virtue when you're an experienced farmer waiting for your orchard to recover from a devastating frost, says veteran apple grower Tom Pate.

The owner of Brantwood Farms on Powerline Road says there is no comparison this spring, from a cruel frost that struck just after a prolonged warm period at the same time last year, and ravaged his and other Brant County apple operations.

It was a matter of good orchard management and waiting it out.

"We had no frost here, we've had lots of blooms, the bees were on their job, and with the blossoms off, we have lots of apples starting on the branches," Pate said.

"Now the challenge is to thin out the clusters, by reducing to one or two apples per cluster so that the ones we want have a chance to grow to a good size. It's better to have a decent sized apple than a bunch of marbles."

That's a dramatic contrast from spring 2012.

"I'd say the frost has affected 80% of my trees, and I'll probably lose 50% to 60% in yields this year," Pate said shortly after a frost hit the area in the last week of April that year. "It's pretty grim."

Dealing with the disaster was a matter of good management, Pate said. He accepted the loss, took care of his 4,000 trees and waited for the winter and the following cooler-than-normal spring, with an eye always on the weather.

"We just had to be patient," he recounted. "All of the trees hit by frost made it throughout the winter. Everything has turned out well in the end."

Now he is looking optimistically at a good growing season for his 15 apple varieties.

Gerald and Lola Brubacher are enjoying the same spring at Orchard Home Farm on Howell Road northwest of St. George.

"We're optimistic that we'll have a wonderful crop come harvest time," Gerald Brubacher said of their orchard of 10,000 apple trees over 50 acres.

"It took a longer time than usual for the blossoms to come, but when they did it was great. The bees were in early and whenever it was warm they were out. We're anticipating that they were able to do their jobs."

The Brubachers have also been lucky this year with their pear trees. The pear blossoms came earlier than the apple ones, but appear in the early going to have emerged well through the cool weather.

"I'm an optimistic person," said Brubacher. "Things are looking good."

But frost did damage crops some Ontario crops.

Geoff Coulson of Environment Canada said the late frost was unusual, but it's not unheard of in May as cold air to the north and warm air to the south battle to bring weather to the area.

"This is still a bit of a transitional month for us."

But with warm and cold spells alternating this month, "this past May has been a very dramatic example of that."

Coulson said frost now is out of the forecast as temperatures are expected to climb.

But he also noted that June historically isn't a frost-free month.

"There's still that chance of one or two cold nights again."

michael-allan.marion@sunmedia.ca

With files from QMI Agency

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Frost damage

A number of producers in southwestern Ontario have reported damage from weekend frost, says Susan Murray of the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture:

- Potatoes in the Grand Bend and Delhi area were damaged. They are expected to recover but a later harvest and some yield loss is expected.

- Tomatoes in the Leamington, Chatham-Kent and Ridgetown areas experienced varying amounts of damage. In some areas up to 80% of the tomato plants are damaged, some of which will not recover and will need to be replanted.

- Asparagus in the Chatham-Kent area was hit by cold temperatures Saturday morning. Asparagus plants will start to grow new spears as soon as the weather is warmer.

- Early transplanted celery, peppers and onions in the Grand Bend and the Chatham-Kent area were damaged, much of it to the point they will not recover.

- Apple and pear trees are past bloom and are not as susceptible to cold temperatures. However, in the orchards that experienced the colder temperatures for longer periods of times there could be an impact on the shape and skin texture (russeting) on the fruit.

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Source: http://www.brantfordexpositor.ca/2013/05/28/after-lost-season-apple-growers-are-optimistic

jarhead

Syrian army pushes assault on rebel-held town

This citizen journalism image provided by Edlib News Network, ENN, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows black smoke rising from what rebels say is a helicopter that was shot down at Abu Dhour military airbase which is besieged by the rebels, in the northern province city of Idlib, Syria, Friday May 17, 2013. Rights activists have found torture devices and other evidence of abuse in government prisons in the first Syrian city to fall to the rebels, Human Rights Watch said in a report Friday. (AP Photo/Edlib News Network ENN)

This citizen journalism image provided by Edlib News Network, ENN, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows black smoke rising from what rebels say is a helicopter that was shot down at Abu Dhour military airbase which is besieged by the rebels, in the northern province city of Idlib, Syria, Friday May 17, 2013. Rights activists have found torture devices and other evidence of abuse in government prisons in the first Syrian city to fall to the rebels, Human Rights Watch said in a report Friday. (AP Photo/Edlib News Network ENN)

A Syrian supporting the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, holds a placard with his picture and the national flag as he participates in a protest outside the US Embassy in central London, Saturday, May 18, 2013. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) ? Syrian troops backed by tanks and warplanes launched an assault Sunday on a strategic rebel-held town near the Lebanese border, pounding the area with airstrikes and artillery salvos that killed at least 30 people and forced residents to scramble for cover in basements and makeshift bunkers, activists said.

The town of Qusair has been besieged for weeks by regime troops and pro-government gunmen backed by the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group. The siege is part of a regime offensive that aims to regain control of the towns and villages along the frontier with Lebanon.

The border region's strategic value is twofold: it links Damascus with the Mediterranean coastal enclave that is the heartland of President Bashar Assad's Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam; and rebels smuggle weapons and supplies from Lebanon across the porous frontier to opposition fighters inside Syria.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 30 people, including 16 rebel fighters and one woman, were killed in Qusair in fighting Sunday morning, but that the death toll was expected to rise as government troops continue to try to push into the town.

A government official in the nearby provincial capital of Homs said that regime troops have encircled the town and that "the offensive to liberate Qusair has begun."

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media, said the army has built up its forces on three fronts around Qusair while leaving one clear for "safe passage for fleeing civilians and the armed terrorists who want to surrender."

The official said government forces have advanced into the town, taking over the municipality building and other vital government institutions.

But Hadi Abdullah, an activist in Qusair reached on Skype, denied the regime made any advances on the ground. He said the municipality was destroyed in fighting six months ago, and that there's no government building left to take over.

He said heavy shelling began late Saturday and continued through Sunday, and that civilians have sought shelter in basements

"It's the heaviest since the beginning of the revolution," he said, adding that at least 17 houses have been destroyed.

The discrepancy in the accounts could not be immediately verified.

Separately, an official at the Homs governor's office said two suicide bombings in the town of Deir Balbaa just outside of Homs killed at least three people and wounded 15 others. The official declined to be identified because he is not allowed to make public comments.

Another pair of bombings struck near a factory on a different Homs highway, killing four people and wounding 13, the state news agency reported.

The regime' offensive on Qusair comes as the United States and Russia push a joint effort to get Assad and his opponents to negotiate an end to the country's civil war. Previous attempts to solve the conflict peacefully have failed.

The U.S.-Russian plan, similar to one set out last year in Geneva, calls for talks on a transition government and an open-ended cease-fire.

More than 70,000 people have been killed and several million displaced since the uprising against Assad erupted in March 2011 and escalated into a civil war. The fighting has also spilled over into neighboring states, including Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon and Israel, all of which are anxious about the ripple effect of Syria's conflict on their own nations.

On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned at a weekly Cabinet meeting Sunday that the Jewish state was prepared to act if there were more shipments to Hezbollah from Syria.

"We are following the developments and changes there closely and we are prepared for every scenario," he said.

Israeli warplanes carried out two rounds of airstrikes on Damascus early this month on what officials have said were sophisticated missiles bound for Hezbollah.

On Saturday, Assad said in a newspaper interview that he won't step down before elections and that the United States has no right to interfere in his country's politics.

Assad's comments to the Argentine newspaper Clarin were the first about his political future since Washington and Moscow agreed earlier this month to try to bring the regime and the opposition to an international conference for talks about a peaceful resolution to the conflict. The U.S. and Russia have backed opposite sides in the conflict, but appear to have found common ground in the diplomatic push.

The White House and the Kremlin envision holding the meeting next month, but no date has been set. Neither Assad nor the Syrian National Coalition, the main Western-backed opposition coalition group, has made a firm commitment to attend.

In the interview, Assad seemed to play down the importance of such a conference, saying a decision on Syria's future is up to the Syrian people, not the U.S. He also said a decision on his political future must be made in elections, and not during such a conference.

As the regime and opposition decides whether to even take part in the conference, the planning for the potential talks looked set to move forward.

Jordan is to host Western and Arab foreign ministers, including U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, for a meeting Wednesday that brings together the Syrian opposition's foreign supporters to plan for the peace talks.

In Egypt, the Arab League said its ministerial committee on Syria will meet Thursday to discuss ways to convene the international conference on Syria. The Syrian opposition said they will meet in Turkey that same day to discuss whether to take part in an international conference on the conflict.

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Associated Press writers Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria, Aron Heller in Jerusalem, Maamoun Youssef in Cairo, Egypt, and Yasmine Saker in Beirut contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-05-19-ML-Syria/id-ca1419401906426f8919b05c07f1d5f4

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