Riveridge Produce Marketing just established something new in Michigan: a covering system for commercial-scale sweet cherries.The company's main aim is to protect cherries from rain cracking, but it's also looking to improve frost mitigation and hopes to boost pollination. Riveridge will cover 18 acres of sweet cherries this year, in two orchards that are a few years old and just coming into production, said operations manager Justin Finkler.Riveridge Produce Marketing is known mainly as a grower, packer and marketer of apples based in Michigan's Fruit Ridge north of Grand Rapids, but the company is moving more into sweet cherries to expand sales. There aren't many large, fresh-market sweetcherry growers in the Midwest and on the East Coast, which creates an opportunity for local sales of the profitable crop. Growers venturing into sweet cherries need a consistent crop from year to year, however, which makes covering the fruit a necessity, Finkler said.
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