Frost Damage at local orchard

TREMPEALEAU, Wis. (WKBT) — With the recent frost warnings, many people might be worried about their plants.

However,  one local apple grower says for them, it’s just mother nature running its course.

Because of last weekend’s frost, The Sacia Echo Lodge Orchard near Trempealeau lost about 80-percent its fruit on trees in the lower part of the orchard.

However, with more than 100 years of experience on its side, the orchard isn’t concerned about the damage.

The orchard’s operation manager said that loss won’t affect their final crop and actually did the orchard a favor.

“We had a really great bloom this season and the crop looked really, really good. We actually had a higher crop load on our trees. This is typical,  so we’re going to eliminate about 90 percent of the fruit on the tress to start with. That helps increase the size of the fruit and quality of the fruit,” said John Brandsoy.

Each year the orchard produces around 80,000 bushels of fruit