Northwest Cherry Challenges Pt 2 Tuesday Apr 20th, 2021 With today’s Fruit Grower Report, I’m Bob Larson. Northwest cherries are in full bloom right now and are looking pretty good at this point, but recent winds and unseasonably cold nights have undoubtedly cut the crop outlook from what it had been. Northwest Cherry Growers president BJ Thurlby says the weather has been a challenge, but they’ve got another ongoing threat … THURLBY … “We think this crop, off of the top, is going to be down two to two-and-a-half million boxes from what is our number one issue in our industry right now which is called Little Cherry Disease. And, that’s kind of been going on the last four or five years, we’ve seen it grow and grow and grow. And, now we’re at the point where we’ve got all hands-on deck trying to figure out how we’re going to stop this.”