Berry growers across the region say the strawberry crop is late this year due to a cold winter and wet spring.

Farmers are hoping for sunshine and heat to ripen green berries.

The good news for most: It looks as if there will be plenty of strawberries to go around.

Sharon Goss of Goss Berry Farm in Mechanic Falls said her fields are not yet open.

Strawberries are “running a little late,” she said. It looks like it will be closer to July before the family’s you-pick strawberry fields open, Goss said.

Goss said the expected heat this week should ripen up the berries.

David Pike of Pike’s Farm to You in Farmington said the strawberries “are coming. He was able to sell some strawberries at the family’s hut on routes 2 and 4 last week. They didn’t open Monday in hopes of opening the hut the rest of the week at least during morning hours. The pick-your-own operation will open closer to the first week of July, he said.

“They are late; there is some winter damage,” Pike said.

The cold weather in December hurt some of the plants, he said. He’s hoping a couple of weeks of intense heat and limited rain will ripen the berries and prolong the crop.

There is only a four-week season from blossom to picking, Pike said.

“We need warm days, about 75 degrees, and nights about 55 degrees,” he said.

Pressure from molds is also a factor, he said, because of rainy weather, but he’s on top of it and treating it accordingly.

“I think we’re going to be fine,” he said.

In this business, Pike said, “You could have 10 red berries today and a 1,000 red berries tomorrow.”

Last year, Pike said, there were 23,000 quarts picked from the family’s fields. He predicts that his crop will be down 25 percent to 30 percent this year.

“I’m just guessing,” he said. Though no one was available to talk Monday at Stevenson’s Strawberry Farm in Wayne, a recording stated that the “strawberry crop looks good this year, but it’s a little late.”

Sue and Ford Stevenson, according to the message, hope to open the fields either late this week or early next week. They expect the season to last until mid July.

Vernon Goss, Sharon Goss’ brother-in-law, said his crop in Poland wasn’t doing quite as well as others.

“I think it was the cold weather that hurt,” Goss said. “The plants aren’t as full. I’ve got a few just starting to ripen this week, but most are still green.”

Kim Verrill of Poland said the family’s pick-your-own operation will probably open in early July.

“We’re planning on opening this weekend,” said Margaret Barton of Albany Township in Oxford County. Her husband, Franklin, will decide, hopefully by Thursday, if they will open Saturday or Sunday.

“We’ve got lots of strawberries, but they’re green,” she said. “We’re hoping by weekend that they’ll ripen.”

Her husband said there will be plenty of the several different varieties of strawberries that the couple offers on their 5-plus acres of fields once that happens.

dperry@sunjournal.com