There may not be an immediate effect on Door County fruit crops, but the extreme cold temperatures can have a lasting impact. Annie Deutsch is the Agriculture Educator with the UW-Extension in Sturgeon Bay and she says she's still seeing an impact from the 2014 polar vortex on some plants and fruits. Deutsch compared plants to humans in the way that once humans get sick, the immune system is weakened and makes it easier to get sick again.
Even plants that are cold-hardy can be greatly affected. The polar vortex may be good news in terms of pests and insects as not as many of them will have survived the extreme cold.
