While grape growers in the local area are still working through losses due to the late April freeze, vegetable crops are also seeing some damage.

The late April freeze caused significant damage to local grape crops and the Lake Erie Regional Grape Program reports that concord grape vineyards east of Westfield suffered 100% primary shoot loss and west of Westfield have seen variable primary and secondary shoot loss. In Concord vineyards with 100% primary shoot loss, the crop potential has already been reduced from 100% to 30%, assuming there is no additional damage to secondary shoots. Some vineyards also reported secondary shoot loss, meaning a 100% crop loss for those vineyards.

Extension Vegetable Specialist with Cornell Cooperative Extension, Elizabeth Buck, said for vegetables, while there has been some crop damage, the situation is not caused by one singular event.

“In terms of vegetables, yes there have been some crops that have performed poorly but not so much due to one singular event, moreso due to the accumulation of rain this summer,” Buck said.

Buck added that there was no significant, catastrophic event for vegetable crops that caused lower production. The continual wet weather throughout the summer, and more specifically in July caused some crops to not produce or grow as well as normal.

“This made it challenging for a number of vegetable farmers,” Buck said. “It’s not as dramatic as the fruit but we have seen increased costs in production, increased challenges and growers may not get as many pickings, but it’s really location specific.”

For other crops in the Chautauqua County area, no significant damage has been reported because of the late April freeze or tornadoes that occurred over the past few months.