YAKIMA -- Damage from the Yakima Valley's worst freeze in more than two decades is still being assessed, but some growers are reporting they've lost their entire apple or cherry crop.

A five-day cold snap ending Monday saw overnight temperatures dip as low as 19 degrees and may have reduced a projected record apple crop to about 20 percent below average, said Yakima Valley Growers executive director Keith Mathews.

Although it's too early to fully assess actual crop damage, industry officials said the reports echo the aftermath of similar weather in 1985, when a May freeze prompted $5 million in emergency federal loans to fruit growers.

A complete assessment of crop losses won't be available until late May. But preliminary reports are discouraging.

Mathews said cherry farmers are reporting total losses from Zillah to Gleed, and similar reports are coming from apple growers along the ridges from Prosser to the Upper Valley, Mathews said.

He said he couldn't find one bud on a cherry orchard he inspected Saturday outside Gleed.

"It was a tough five or six days. A lot of people put a lot of money into propane to heat their orchards," he said. "Hopefully we're past the severe cold. I'm sure some farmers will be looking at a severely reduced crop and wonder if it's worth it."

Growers should get a break in the weather as expected temperatures warm up. Overnight temperatures are expected to be in the high 30s and low 40s the rest of the week, according to the National Weather Service in Pendleton, Ore.

Growers will spend the rest of the week assessing damage and deciding whether it's worth it to continue heating their orchards, said Mike Bush, an educator at the Washington State University Extension office in Yakima.

"In the next week or so, they will be making some tough choices," he said, referring to growers who must decide if they have enough crop left to make harvesting worthwhile.

Bush said he questions the number of growers who used all available protection for their crops, such as heaters, overhead irrigation and tree canopies.

"I'm a little afraid to call growers right now," he said. "I'm kind afraid of the amount of crop damage we may have out there."

Mathews noted that farmers are suffering under the costs of keeping wind turbines and propane heaters going to warm orchards. Heaters are typically fueled by propane, which he said costs $4 per gallon and has sometimes been tough to find.

"I think the only guys that won this one are the propane dealers," he said. "Just after a hard-fought freeze, people are very tired, those that were on the front line. It's pretty depressing."

Based on blooms, early estimates of this year's statewide apple production were pegged at 120 million boxes, well above the 100 million average, he said.

But based on preliminary damage reports, there may only be about 80 million of the 40-pound boxes produced, he said.

That represents a roughly 20 percent drop that will reverberate at packing, box-making companies and other businesses, he said.

Yakima Valley cherry growers seemed to have been hit the hardest, but the overall outlook for the cherry harvest is still promising, said Teresa Baggarley of the Washington State Fruit Commission.

"At this point, we're still being quite optimistic," she said. "The cherry crop volume overall will weather this pretty well."

Just because growers lose a substantial amount of blossoms doesn't mean the end of a crop, Mathews notes.

It only takes about 10 percent of cherry blossoms on a tree to produce a full crop, he said.

In the Naches area, grower René Garcia said it has been a trying time.

'We've been up all night all week trying to keep the (propane) companies bringing us fuel and only getting about 40 percent of a 500 gallon tank," he said. "That's good for two nights."

Garcia said his pears were lost, but his apples and cherry trees looked better.

"Right now, they are holding their own. There's a lot of damage, but there's a lot of good also."

* Phil Ferolito can be reached at 577-7749 or pferolito@yakimaherald.com.

* Reporter Ross Courtney contributed to this article.