The owner of Grunthal Berries says winterkill has wiped out most of their strawberry patch.

Colleen Edmunds explains the plants were really slow coming up this year and at first, she thought it was due to the late spring. But, it is now mid-June, the plants are sparse and without flower stocks.

Edmunds says there could be several factors that led to the winterkill. She notes the strong winds and lack of snow this winter probably teamed together, creating a deadly force. Even though they placed straw over the plants last fall, Edmunds says it didn't all stay in place because of the wind.

Grunthal Berries also experienced a lot of winterkill last year and yet Edmunds admits she was surprised when reality set in this spring.

"Sometimes strawberries are a little bit late coming and you think, 'oh, maybe this year there was winterkill,'" says Edmunds. "But most years they survive and they look good and they suddenly all start to grow and bloom at the same time. But this year that just didn't happen."

Grunthal Berries is made up of six acres of strawberries. Edmunds guesses this year they have about one acre of usable plants.

She notes every year they do some replanting, but anything they plant in spring was ordered already in fall. Edmunds says what they ordered last fall was planted this spring and will be ready for its first harvest next year. Four acres were replanted this year.

"Whatever we planted this year isn't ready for picking," she says. "We planted a big patch for next year, so we should be ok next year."

Edmunds says it makes for awkward planning when you discover a large patch of your field did not survive the winter.

As a result, there will be no U-Pick season at Grunthal Berries in 2018. However, they will have a Pre-Pick season starting around July 6th. Those berries will be available through some local stores.

Edmunds says their revenue will take a big hit this year. Though most of their expenses will stay the same, revenue could be one-third to one-half of normal.

"We still have to put nutrients on the plants and take care of them and spend time weeding them, so that's a lot of labour," she explains. "We aren't going to be able to really cover that this year so we're trying to minimize our inputs as much as possible."

Edmunds expects to also hire less staff for the summer.

As mentioned, Grunthal Berries also experienced winterkill last year. But Edmunds says that didn't stop them from running a U-Pick season or from selling as much Pre-Picked as people wanted.

According to Edmunds, they are not alone. She has heard of other berry farms across southern Manitoba that experienced winterkill. In hindsight, Edmunds says putting up a snow fence might have helped catch the snow and save some of their plants.

Edmunds says the spring weather has been fine on the plants that survived. And though they have had to use irrigation, the blossoms look nice.