Harvesting of strawberry crop to be delayed by cold early summer

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Strawberries are an integral part of the Finnish summer, but this year we will have to wait a little longer for the arrival of locally-grown fruit.
      The cold weather at the beginning of the summer has delayed the ripening of Finnish strawberries by at least one week.
      According to Puutarhaliitto (the Finnish Garden Association), a small amount of early strawberries for Midsummer celebrations will nevertheless be ripe for picking at some farms in Southern Finland, even though they will not be offered for sale at so many retail outlets as usual.
     
The actual strawberry season is expected to start at the southern farms, including Central Finland and the Savo region as well, during the first weeks of July. Strawberry crops in Ostrobothnia and Northern Finland will ripen somewhat later.
      In the course of the winter, strawberry sprouts were eaten by field voles in the South Savo and North Savo regions.
      In Suonenjoki, Finland’s number one strawberry production district, voles and moles destroyed a quarter of the strawberry sprouts.
      However, the damage is not believed to have a significant effect on the volume of the national strawberry crop, which is expected to amount to 10 to 12 million kilos.
     
At the same time, this year’s blueberry crops are predicted to be good in many places, as the blooming of blueberries was abundant in the entire country.
      According to the Finnish Forest Research Institute, the pollination of blueberries was also successful, as there were plenty of insects, particularly bumblebees, to transport pollen.
      In early June, night frosts killed blueberry flowers in some places in Western Finland and in Lapland.
      The flowering of cloudberries was disturbed by storms and frosts in various parts of the country.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  A quarter of young strawberry plants in Suonenjoki region destroyed by voles (22.5.2009)
  Finnish strawberry growers prefer foreign berry pickers (12.6.2007)

Links:
  Finnish Forest Research Institute
  Cloudberry (Wikipedia)
  Puutarhaliitto (in Finnish)

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