In farming, crops live and die by the weather. Luckily, the concord grape crop overall survived the harsh winter weather.

Cornell Cooperative Extension Lake Erie Regional Grape Program Specialist Luke Haggerty explained, although the winter did take a toll, growers were able to take steps to avoid heavy damage.

“Considering the circumstances, the concord grape crop is going to do well this year,” he said. “We did have a fair amount of winter damage, but the fruitfulness went into the season looking good. So, even though we had a lot of damage, growers were able to compensate for that damage if they had pruned before the Feb. 16 cold event,” he explained.

Haggerty said damage depends on the area along the grape belt and how much damage the growers compensated for, which makes it difficult to pinpoint a specific area as being hardest hit.

“There was a lot of compensation as far as leaving more buds for this year and as a result of that the projection is slightly below average based on what we have done, but that is a small portion, compared to the grapes in the whole region,” he explained. “There are going to be some growers that were in colder spots that have some moderate damage and they will see that and then there are other areas that saw little or no effect from the cold weather.”

Perrysburg and Silver Creek had some of the lowest temperatures – around negative 30 degrees in mid February – but some growers in those areas will still see average crops. In other areas where it was relatively warmer – around negative 20 – some crops still sustained damage.

Haggerty said one saving grace was the absence of a late frost this year, which in the past has affected the buds, which determine fruitfulness and sugar content. However, the weather has not been kind when it comes to building up the concord’s sugar content.

“The vines look great and they are full of primary and secondary buds. … We have had a lot of cold and wet weather until now, which could contribute to some sugar problems, but these last couple weeks of warm, dry weather have really helped the growing season up to this point,” he explained.

Haggerty added if this warm, dry weather keeps up, the grapes will continue to accumulate sugar, making for a sweet crop come fall.

The weather forecast predicts showers and cooler temperatures heading into the first week of August, which will provide relief for residents, but not for the grapes.