Rain, hail, frost, cloud cover and below-normal temperatures have all had an impact on California stone fruit this spring. But as growers evaluated their orchards in mid-April, they were much more optimistic about what they were seeing than the general mood in the industry seemed to be a week earlier.

Cherries, apricots, peaches, nectarines, plums and Pluots will be anywhere from a week-and-a-half to two-and-a-half weeks later than last year for most varieties. Some early varieties appear to have light sets and extended maturity, meaning the fruit in any given orchard or even on the same tree may mature over a longer period than usual. Some orchards have been damaged by frost or hail, and in isolated cases that damage was extensive.

But overall, growers are optimistic that there will be good fruit size and quality, a close-to-normal volume for the season as a whole, and very good volume for mid-season and late-season varieties.

"We are two weeks-plus late in timing compared to last year" on peaches, nectarines and plums, said Dale Janzen, field director for the California Tree Fruit Agreement in Reedley. "We have had weeks and weeks and weeks at below- normal temperatures. It is hard seeing what is ahead and what is going to happen, but we do know & it is going to be a late year."

There has been "a little bit of frost damage," he said, but in most cases, it is "not too extensive." Some orchards were badly damaged, and for the growers affected, "it is very serious. But we are still optimistic that we've got a good crop. We are going to have slightly more fruit than we had last year." While it "will not be a bumper crop," he said, "we still think we can get an average sized crop out of this."

However, he acknowledged that it is "a rough year to try to get a handle on," largely because the fruit is so far behind where it usually would be at this time of year. "It's like going out and looking at orchards the third week of March. It is too early to tell anything."

The earliest Early Treat peaches in the San Joaquin Valley would probably start in the Arvin area at the very end of April or first of May, Mr. Janzen said. The Central Valley will probably start eight to 10 days later with the earliest varieties. "It looks like we are going to have a pretty healthy gap between Arvin and our area."

Much of the mid- and late-season varieties were still in the bloom stage. The fruit that had set was still tiny and still in its jackets. "So really right now we don't know what is going to happen in the late season," said Mr. Janzen.

But "the most direct result of all the weather is we do know that the maturity is going to be very spread out," he said. "If you normally pick three times, you are going to have to pick four or five times" to get the fruit off the trees. An orchard that might normally be harvested over a week-and-a-half could take up to three weeks to harvest.

While that increases harvest costs, it does have one positive effect, he said. "Rather than having the peaks and valleys" in volume as different varieties come and go through the season, there will be "a much more consistent supply this year. So once we get going with some good production, it is just going to keep going for the whole summer."

It should be a good year for fruit sizing, he said. "The longer the fruit is on the tree, the bigger it is going to get."

"I think on the early deal it is going to be a little light," said John Hein of Kingsburg Orchards in Kingsburg, CA. "We are about two weeks behind." But he expects to "catch up about the end of May or early June."

The early fruit will be of good quality with good size, color and flavor, he said. "It's just that the carton count may be off a little bit." How much off is uncertain. He recalled a situation three or four years ago when the early season appeared light, but when the harvest started there was more fruit packed than expected, and the retailers weren't ready for it.

"There is going to be plenty of fruit. I mean good fruit," said Robert Maxwell of Kingsburg Orchards. "April and May are going to start off a little slow, but when we get into June, July, August and September, there is going to be lots of good fruit, and I think it will be a good year. Our only concern is that our season gets compressed. We are going to have less time to sell our crop."

Jesse Silva of SunWest Fruit Co. in Parlier, CA, said that he expects a 10- to 14-day delay in the season due to the cold weather. The main effect of the rain is that it has "delayed some of our thinning opportunities," he said. But that had some benefits as well, since some orchards that received moderate hail damage had not yet been thinned, so the hail "just cleaned off some of the fruit. Crews will be able to go in there and clean it up."

A freeze a few weeks ago made some of the early varieties a little lighter, Mr. Silva said, but he does not think it will affect the middle and late varieties.

Jeff Simonian of Simonian Fruit Co. in Fowler, CA, said that some of the company's orchards on the west side of the valley received some hail damage, and the early Zee Fire nectarines were badly hurt by the freeze. But generally, Simonian's early orchards do not seem to be showing the problems with poor set that some others are.

"A lot of our early fruit is in Arvin, so it really didn't get hit by the weather," he said, adding that he expects the first peaches out of Arvin and the first apricots around May 10, followed by the first Kay Sweets around May 15 to 18. The Zee Fires would have come earlier, but they "got wiped out."

The spring weather made assessing the cherry crop in the central San Joaquin Valley difficult, according to Maurice Cameron of Trinity Fruit Sales Co. in Fresno, CA. Freezing temperatures in early March at first appeared to have caused "significant damage to the trees and blossoms," particularly on the Tulare variety. But by the end of March, the picture was looking better. "We still see some orchards with crop reductions due to freeze damage, but we see plenty of orchards with viable crops," he said.

The post-bloom season "has been cold and wet, and the trees are progressing slowly," Mr. Cameron said April 10. "The earliest orchards in both the Arvin and Fresno districts seem to be light. The later orchards had good amounts of blossom but with poor weather during most of the blossom period, so we are still watching these orchards to see what kind of set we will get."

He expected a limited supply of cherries in late April, mainly Sequoias, with Brooks starting around May 7-8 and Tulares not showing any volume until May 17-20. "Bings won't be readily available until the last week of May," although some blocks may be harvested before that, he said. Jim Culbertson of the California Cherry Advisory Board said that the weather is delaying the early cherries in the central San Joaquin Valley by about a week-and-a-half, and the Bings in the north by perhaps two weeks or longer. Cherries, like other stone fruit, are also seeing uneven sets and extended maturity. "You'd prefer to have the fruit closer together on maturity," he said.

Early apricots have also been delayed by the weather. Tom Tjerandsen of the California Fresh Apricot Council said, "Most of the rain that we've had has been gentle enough ... that it hasn't created too much havoc with the early season apricots." Except for some early fruit on the west side that was affected by hail, "things are looking quite late but still tenable," he said. "We are still hoping for a normal harvest."

On April 12, the extended weather forecast for the Fresno area showed one more storm system moving in within the following days, then partly cloudy and continued cool weather for the subsequent five days, followed by mostly sunny weather and more seasonally normal temperatures with highs in the mid-80s.