Too much sun a concern for some Okanagan fruit growers

With precipitation in the forecast Sunday, no one is looking forward to rain more than Okanagan fruit growers.

While the Okanagan is a perfect fruit growing region because of the hot summers, sometimes you can get too much of a good thing.

Kelowna, as of Aug. 11, is now at day 44 without rain.

“It’s not good,” B.C. Tree Fruit Growers Association president Fred Steele said.

It’s not so much the lack of rainfall that’s impacting local growers and their fruit but the intense heat.

“When you get up into that 35 and 40 degree range your trees begin to slow down and they begin to look after themselves,” Steele said.

The cherry crop has been bountiful but some orchards can’t keep up with the ripening and have to abandon some crops.

“You are picking and then the next block is ready to go and you can’t get there in time then there is going to be a percentage that you can’t harvest,” B.C. Cherry Association President Sukhpaul Ball said.

With rain and cooler temperatures forecast over the next week it may just be want the growers ordered.