Update from the Orchard

Written by Chris Negronida, Cider Consultant

Every growing season has a story. Some are more memorable than others—a spring freeze, a dry summer, or the perfect harvest weather in October, but every season has a story. This season's story has been relentless rain. This past May went down as one of the coolest and wettest on record, and June has only provided marginal improvement.

When early May arrived, we were feeling pretty good. We had avoided any catastrophic freeze events, and the trees were budding out more or less when we would expect them to. But then, just as blossoms were starting to open, the rain came. Even when it wasn't raining, it was cold (for May). It was about the worst pollination weather imaginable. Honey bees are fair-weather creatures. They prefer it in the 60s or 70s, with sunny conditions and ideally, not too windy. Some native pollinators are hardier and will venture out in less-than-ideal conditions, but still prefer dry, sunny weather. Bumblebees are about the only pollinators I have seen visiting flowers when it is actively raining. As you can imagine, the cool, cloudy weather did not encourage our pollinators to spend much time in the orchard. The result was poor pollination for the majority of the varieties we grow.

Then came the fungal issues. Most fungal diseases require the leaves or fruit surface to remain wet for an extended period for infection to occur. For instance, apple scab requires at least six hours of leaf wetness for an "infection event."  Typically, these "events" are spaced far enough apart that we can plan accordingly and take measures to prevent or reduce the infection, but when you have four or five rainy days in a row, there is little you can do but sit back and wait for it to dry out. The result of this spring's wet weather has been an increased incidence of several fungal diseases in the orchard.

There is a silver lining, however. The concept of a "test winter" is a common one among fruit growers. It's the idea that a freezing winter may damage some trees, but it will also give you a clearer picture of which varieties are truly cold-hardy. This spring has felt like a test spring for fungal diseases – it should provide us with a relatively clear picture of which varieties in our orchard are truly disease-resistant.  With that knowledge, we can start to remove from the orchard particularly susceptible varieties, while adding more of those that show good resistance to major apple diseases, creating a more resilient orchard.

Another upside is that we were already expecting this to be a lighter crop after the large harvest last fall (the explanation for that phenomenon is for another time). Our tanks are full, and we still have a plentiful supply of cider to work with. We will weather this season as farmers have done for generations. One thing I have learned over my years growing fruit is to expect the unexpected. Here's to sunnier and drier days ahead!