Apples Coming Along

Apples Coming Along

Apple Crop Coming Along. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

The hot weather here in the state has caused some concern for apple producer. Todd Fryhover, President of the Washington Apple Commission.

FRYHOVER: Yeah the heat is having some affect, there’s no doubt about that, I mean we’re more susceptible to sunburn this time of year. We need to be out there irrigating very frequently. There’s some protection that’s going on with overhead sprinklers to try to keep the orchards cool so this weather is something that could in the long-term affect us but right now we’re remaining optimistic for a good crop in 2015.

With harvest about 45 days away it’s important that the last of the 2014 apples get sold off.

FRYHOVER: We’re getting very close. We have somewhere around 20-million boxes left to sell which is quite a bit more than normal but we have seen a lot of good export activity on Red Delicious. The numbers on Red Delicious are actually ahead of where they were two years ago. We do need a little bit more movement on Gala’s, we need the Golden deal to clean up but we’re on our way

Another aspect of the hot weather is apple size.

FRYHOVER: Typically when the weather gets this hot the trees respond by protecting their roots. They’re more interested in survival than they are in putting out large size fruit so what we see is a stunting of the apple growth during this time so they typically don’t grow which frankly can be a good thing.

Export markets tend to be more open to smaller sized fruit.

That’s today’s Fruit Grower Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network of the West.

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