And now, just as the sweet little stone fruits are finally ripening up, some growers have been dealt another blow, with a hailstorm hitting the south side of town on Tuesday.

Cherry grower Greg Perry, who has an orchard on Pinnacle Road, lost half his crop.

"It wiped out everything out outside of the nets."

"It's very disappointing," he said.

Popular Nashdale pick-your-own orchard Thornbrook was lucky not to be hit by Tuesday's hailstorm, but like other growers, Paula Charnock has had a tough start to the season.

Last month's rain caused early varieties to split and cherry picking has been delayed multiple times.

The orchard finally opened to the public this week and after waiting patiently, cherry lovers wasted no time in coming to pick their own $7/kg buckets of cherries.

It was a busy start, with two mini-buses coming through on the first day on Tuesday.

Mrs Charnock and other growers are now hoping the wet weather holds off, as more rain will cause damage to the main crop.

"If we get big rain and it splits them all then we'll have to shut for a few days but hopefully we'll be open now until we run out of cherries," Mrs Charnock said.

The lack of sunshine and the wet weather means the first cherries are also a little smaller than usual and have some splitting.

"It looks like it might be sunny for a few days later this week so that will definitely help," she said.

Orchardist and NSW Farmers' Horticulture committee chair Guy Gaeta is also preparing to start picking cherries at his Nashdale property this week.

While the early variety crops were heavily impacted, he says the cooler weather in November, which delayed ripening, actually protected the main crop.

"Because the season is so late, they're green so they're not splitting.

"Considering all of the rain that we've had, we're not in a bad situation.

"At the moment the damage is there but not as bad as we thought."

Mr Gaeta said he had been experimenting with a wax that coats the cherries so that water will run off, minimising damage.

Going forward, a little rain will be okay, but a repeat of the heavy downpours seen last month would be bad news, he said.

"If it stops or slows down it's alright, one to five millimetres we can handle that - we can go and dry them.

"But from now on and from next week if (the rain) doesn't stop then it might be a different story."

Mr Gaeta said his main concern now was flying foxes, which were already starting to fly into the orchard of an evening.

At Borenore pick-you-own cherry orchard, Kelenvale, owner Kelvin Price has had to push back the orchard's opening date by almost a month due to the cool and wet weather and the hailstorm that hit some local orchards, including his last month.

But he says he now has enough ripe and sweet fruit: "I'll probably put the sign out this weekend," he said.

Mr Price usually starts to pick in mid-November but says he lost all of those early cherries.

"The first 200 trees I never picked a cherry off because they got hail on them, and then they got rained on and then they got brown rot - so I just left all of them. I didn't pick one," he said.

The next variety the Sunburst were also hit with hail and "marked pretty badly," he said, but he is hopeful they will still be OK, as long as the rain holds off.

He says it's possible to keep some water off by drying them, but it depends on how wet it gets.

"The Sunburst that are coming through they're sweet but are really prone to splitting.

"You've only got to look at them with a tear in your eye and and they'll split."

The next variety, the Lapins, were less prone to splitting, and those cherries should be ready to pick just before Christmas - around December 19, he said.

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