This year’s snow and cold temperatures has some fruit growers worried about their crop for this season.

Shane Ardiel can normally drive a truck into his orchard by now. But there’s so much snow he’s still using a snowmobile to get around.

“Mother Nature can be a little bit cruel sometimes but when you are in this business you get used to what she throws at ya.”

Ardiel’s seasonal workers have seen snow before but nothing like this year.

“It’s the first time I’ve seen this – it was very shocking to me. I didn’t know a country anywhere on earth could be like this,” says seasonal worker Kemroy McKenzie.

In some places there’s so much snow it’s starting to damage the trees.

“It’s been six, seven feet deep where the snow has been drifting. When that snow is melting it has a crust on it, it’s really heavy bringing the branches down and here and there they are just snapping off,” added Ardiel.

In Barrie, John Juffermans says he’s already behind schedule.

“Usually we start the first week of March, this year we won’t start until the first week of April. We will be about a month behind in pruning,” says Juffermans. “It doesn’t mean the apples will be later because once blossoms come out the apples will catch up.”

Gaye Trombley hasn’t started pruning her trees yet, she says she’s worried about the weather.

“We lost our crop three years ago through the blossoms froze at that time of year so what’s coming up is a big concern to me as is the middle of winter.”

Farmers say they are looking forward to the warm weather and once it’s here they are hoping it stays constant because any kind of dramatic change can damage the buds and make a for a devastating season.