Climate resilience program helps Minnesota fruit farmers use winter to plan for the future

NINA MOINI: Well, fruit crops in Minnesota have gone dormant to survive the winter. That leaves the people who grow them to plan ahead. For at least one group of fruit growers, that includes preparing for warmer winters, wetter springs and drier summers. These are some of the trends happening in our region due to climate change. Tomorrow, the University of Minnesota Extension will begin the second year of a climate resilience program for fruit growers here and in Wisconsin. Madeline Wimmer is organizing the program as an extension educator and president of the Organic Fruit Growers Association and joins me now in the studio. Thank you for being here.

MADELINE WIMMER: Yeah, thanks for having me on the show.

NINA MOINI: And we were just hearing about that winter storm from Elena See. Climate change is so prevalent and in the forefront, I feel like, of growing right now and for all of agriculture, really, in the state of Minnesota. I mean, what are some of the major fruit crops that we're talking about here in Minnesota, and how big a role do they play just in the food system of this region?

MADELINE WIMMER: Yeah, that's a great question. Some of the major fruit crops-- apples really take the scene in Minnesota, although we have a bigger agritourism industry here rather than selling for wholesale like Washington or Michigan or New York might be doing. And also, we're really well known for our breeding efforts in apples, of course, home of the Honeycrisp and all of that.

But grapes, wine grapes. We have cold climate wine grapes that really are much more hardier than some of the typical European wine grapes. Strawberries. There are some people who are growing blueberries in the state. And then there are some crops that are kind of up and coming. Honeyberries would be a good example of that.

NINA MOINI: Cool. So fruit growers right now in the state, this time of year, what are they doing? Can you describe for our listeners some of the actions they might be taking to prepare?

MADELINE WIMMER: So right before this time period, someone who is growing strawberries-- which are really an herbaceous fruit crops, so meaning they're not a woody fruit crop-- they require good snow cover throughout the winter. But a lot of people will apply straw. But that's probably something that's happened already at this point.

Some people might be getting ready to do a little bit of prepruning, but a lot of pruning that actually happens is going to be-- unless you have a really big orchard, you're going to be doing that more later in the winter after the coldest parts of the winter occur. So a lot of folks might be hanging tight. Hopefully, they've drained out irrigation and taken care of some of those things. But really, actually getting ready maybe to go to some winter conferences that are coming up. We're at that point of the year.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. And I wonder, too, if you could describe just what some of the challenges to fruit growers are due to climate change, how that impacts what they're growing.

MADELINE WIMMER: Absolutely. Yeah. So I mean, annual crops, like row crops and vegetables, they have their challenges, too. But perennial fruit crops are going to have the major challenge in the fact that they're in the ground all year round. So they have to deal with challenges in the winter time. We don't have the option to just plant a little bit later, perhaps, to avoid flooding or something like that. So of course, you've got warmer winter periods.

And fruit crops, they go into dormancy, but they also have a quality that's called chilling. And so that chilling aspect, when it comes to dormancy, is basically an accumulation of hours in between-- it's a rough science-- between 32 and 45 degrees Fahrenheit. And once they accumulate a number of hours in that frame, then they'll enter a different type of dormancy that's more open to environmental cues.

And so if you have warmer winters that happen to be in that sweet spot, you might get to that point where they break dormancy a little bit earlier. And then if we have these warm ups like in February, you might have early bud break, for example, or an earlier bloom time period, but you still have these risks of erratic weather in the spring.

The actual last frost date in the spring is kind of coming back a little bit, but that's not every year. These are projections based on trends that are going to be increasing over time. So you might still have a spring frost. So if you have a plant that's going to bloom early or it's going to leaf out early, and all of a sudden, you get a spring frost, you can have crop loss issues.

Additionally, there's issues with heavy spring rains. So a lot of fungal pathogens require rain and heat in order to release. And then if you're applying any types of products, organic or conventional, that can get washed off a lot easier in the springtime. So seasonally, the longer periods between rains in the summertime, having issues with drought, the warmer fall periods, even having warmer nights during the fall can affect coloration in apples.

So a lot of fruit crops, they're developing their fruiting buds this year that will be the fruit for next year. And those buds don't go fully dormant until late fall. And until that time period in which they go dormant, they're actually a little bit unstable. So having these warm fall temperatures just isn't very helpful.

NINA MOINI: Wow. There's so much to consider. So this fruit climate resilience cohort is addressing all of these challenges and many more. Can you describe who is participating in this, how you found the growers to participate, and what you're helping with to try to, I guess, combat some of these risks when you really don't what's coming these days?

MADELINE WIMMER: Yeah. So this is in collaboration with the Organic Fruit Growers Association, and I'm working with MCAP, which is Minnesota's Climate Adaptation Partnership, and that's part of the University of Minnesota as well. And we have been looking for people who are focused on commercial farming, and specifically those who are following organic practices or who are USDA-certified organic, which can be a big challenge to be fully certified organic.

In the Midwest, we have a lot of humidity, a lot of rain, and there's just a lot of challenges in general with fruit production. So these are commercial growers who are participating in the program. This year, we have nine growers who will be in the cohort, and they get a whole session with Katie Black, my colleague who's in MCAP, and she'll be talking about the climate projections that people anticipate.

And then we really walk growers through a big planning process that really digs into this concept of adaptive capacity, helping them understand their land, their crops, what they're growing, and then go from there to think about the risks and how they specifically affect their farm, and then think about farming practices, but also thinking about, because climate change, all these issues can really also impact the farmers themselves, farm workers, communities, so we want them to have a whole picture outlook and not to really just go for only one issue, but to have a bigger idea of how to be resilient in a multifaceted way.

NINA MOINI: Sure. And you mentioned what it takes to be certified as organic, and I imagine it does take a lot. Do you feel that climate change is putting more pressure on people to turn to things like chemicals and pesticides, or do you think people are investing more in being organic and seeing both a mission there, but also an economic return?

MADELINE WIMMER: Yeah, that's a really great question. I think there's still a lot that we're trying to understand from the consumer side, because a lot of times, when you are going organic, that's going to increase the price of your goods, and so understanding that consumer demand and getting that picture could really help increase helping people transition to organic. There's a whole program that I'm also a part of that is helping growers transition to organic farming where there's mentorship opportunities and all of that. But yeah.

As we anticipate longer cycles of pests coming out and pests maybe not necessarily like coming out based on a calendar year anticipation based on having earlier warm ups, there's maybe not even just organic, but thinking about a concept that we call integrated pest management, where you're using actual software, weather stations, to try to think about when the best time is to put out traps, and being strategic as to when you actually spray.

And then looking into methods like mating disruption, which helps impact whether you're going to have codling moth, which is your worm in your fruit. They actually attack the fruit itself. So there are opportunities, but I think it really comes down to consumer education and consumer demand as well.

NINA MOINI: Sure. Just lastly, Madeline, there are these negative impacts of climate change. But I do wonder, as the temperatures change and as that progression happens, if it opens the door for other types of crops or fruits to be grown. Is that something that you all focus on? How can we make the best of the situation that we're in?

MADELINE WIMMER: Yeah, that is a really great point. We had one grower last year who really wanted to have some of that optimism, and so we've thought a little bit more about that, because there are so many risks and concerns. And really, what it comes down to is thinking about diversity. So maybe thinking if you are interested in investing in new crops, there's the whole USDA growing zone map, and that kind of indicates how well a plant might survive in a given zone.

And we did recently kind of bump up half a zone everywhere in the states. But what that really means is that the average lowest temperature within a 30 year average is going to be a little bit higher than it used to be, and that's not always going to be consistent from year to year. So the advice is, really, diversity is good. But, for example, putting all your eggs in one basket, being like, I'm just going to grow a fruit crop like pawpaw, for example, which a little bit warmer climates are going to do better with, may not be the best decision.

So anticipating that there's this slow trend towards maybe being able to grow crops that are adapted to warmer areas, but not investing all in that. But thinking more about, if I'm growing apples, I need to grow some varieties that bloom early, some that bloom medium, some that bloom late, and having a good mixture in there, because that diversity really gives resilience to a practice.

NINA MOINI: Thank you so much, Madeline.

MADELINE WIMMER: Absolutely.

NINA MOINI: This has been really fascinating, and I learned a lot. Thank you so much.

MADELINE WIMMER: Yeah. Thanks for having me on the air.

NINA MOINI: Madeline Wimmer is an extension educator for the University of Minnesota focused on fruit production, and she's president of the Organic Fruit Growers Association.