Five young cherry trees were destroyed and 12 rows of trees were damaged after vandals went on a late night spree at Freeway Orchard on State Highway 8B at Cromwell on Monday night.
Cromwell Senior Constable John Chambers said five of the young trees had been stripped of all their branches, and thieves had taken steel ladders used by the cherry pickers and dragged them up and down the rows, climbing trees and damaging their leaves and branches to get cherries, and dropping what they did not want on the ground.
A riser (sprinkler) had been broken off halfway up, and the ground had been littered with leaves, branches and half-ripe fruit.
Freeway Orchard owner Kevin Jackson said he had no idea at this stage of the cost of the damage.
"We discovered it at 6am when the pickers started work. It's something that's irreparable, so you don't think of the cost.
"You just focus on what's to be done.
"It could run into thousands of dollars when you consider the trees that were destroyed," he said.
Police are looking for any information that might help apprehend the people involved in the vandalism.
Four youths aged between 14 and 15 are being spoken to by Alexandra police about a spate of arsons.
Constable Lance Davies said the youths, who were all from Alexandra, were yet to be interviewed by police.
Inquiries were continuing, he said.
The fires in question had been lit in letter boxes and skip bins around the town over the last month and a-half, he said.
