May 13, 2010
By Kathleen Horan
Simcoe Reformer

NEW YORK, NY May 12, 2010 —A cold wind each day could keep the apples away. That's the concern of New York's apple growers, who say unseasonable temperature dips could threaten the buds and blossoms that will produce next fall's crops.

Peter Gregg, a spokesman for the New York Apple Association, says one group of upstate growers hired a fleet of helicopters to hover over their trees this week to warm things up. That, Gregg says, can raise the temperature three or four degrees. "That can really make all the difference with damaging our fruit or not," he says.

Other farmers have been lighting bonfires and hooking up wind machines to keep temperatures above 28 degrees.

Temperatures tonight will again drop into the 30s in some parts of New York, but then will jump into the 40s and 50s as the week progresses.

New York is the second leading producer of apples in the country, behind Washington state.

http://www.wnyc.org/news/articles/154826