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While frost in some parts of the Annapolis Valley overnight Monday is not believed to have had any real impact on apple orchards as blossoms, the amount of rain and cold weather lately has been causing more concern, says the executive director of the Nova Scotia Fruit Growers Association.

Temperatures dropped to -1 C in some parts of the Valley overnight, but Emily Lutz said she hadn’t heard from any growers about damage.

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It’s a bad time of year for frost, she said, but based on not receiving any calls and the low temperatures not hitting everywhere, she didn’t think there would be any issues.

“It is a bad time. This would be catastrophic if it was widespread,” she said.

In the first week of June in 2018, a late frost devastated the apple crop in the Valley, wiping out close to 100 per cent of some crops and orchards.

The low temperatures at night recently, getting down to 6 C several times, haven’t been a big concern, but the amount of wet weather we’ve been experiencing can be problematic.

“You want sunshine during bloom for pollination so I think there has been some concerns about the rain and the bee activity being suppressed by the temperatures and the rain,” she said. “Also, the risk of fire blight has people concerned during blossom because the longer blossoms are open the more susceptible they are to infections like fire blight (when there is rain.)”

The warm weather leading up to the weekend should help the petals drop from the blooms and reduce that risk,” Lutz said, although that also means there won’t be as many for the annual Annapolis Valley Apple Blossom Festival this weekend.

She said early indications from growers is that there are lots of blooms, which is promising for a good crop this year.