Cooler nights arrive at just right time for apple harvest
‘Weird’ growing season ends well, with industry official reporting good-quality fruit
Harvesting of the Kelowna apple crop is running about three weeks later than last year, growers and agricultural experts say.
Recent cooler weather, with overnight lows dipping down to 1 C, are ideal for improving the colour of the fruit before it’s taken off the tree.
“These chilly nights are just finishing off the fruit beautifully,” Jim Wood, owner of Eastwood Organics on Dunster Road in East Kelowna, said Tuesday.
“Last year, the harvest was quite early, but this is more on target with how things usually are,” said Wood, whose crews are halfway through the Gala apple harvest.
Maturation of the fruit can be delayed through long periods of extraordinarily warm weather, as Kelowna experienced from June through early September.
July and August were the warmest on record in Kelowna with 48 days between June 1 and Sept. 1 recording temperatures above 30 C, nearly twice the usual number.
“At temperatures of 30-plus C, a tree can begin to shut down to preserve itself, and not send as many nutrients to the fruit,” said Fred Steele, president of the BC Fruit Growers Association.
But with more-seasonal weather returning, the ripening of the crop is picking up pace. Steele, who harvested his crop at the end of August last year, expected to take the apples off his trees later Tuesday or today.
The correct harvesting time, assessed through the aid of on-site inspectors, or field men, from the grower-owned BC Tree Fruits can vary considerably even within orchards that are relatively close to one another.
“There are so many microclimates, even within the Central Okanagan,” Steele said, explaining the growing conditions vary according to soil types, topography and elevation.
“I used to have two orchards that were only a three-minute drive apart, but there was usually eight or so days between the harvesting times for the properties,” Steele said.
Overall, the Kelowna-area apple harvest is about halfway completed, said Hank Markgraf, field services manager for BC Tree Fruits.
“I think the overall crop size will be a little bit larger than last year,” Markgraf said. “The quality is good, the size is average and the colouring is good.
“It’s been a weird season, with something like 70 days of no rain preceded by those monsoon conditions in the spring,” Markgraf said. “But, overall, the crop is finishing well.”
About 3,200 hectares of land in the Okanagan are planted with apples, down from about 8,100 ha in the early 1990s.
While the colour, sizing and overall tonnage of the apple crop looks promising, growers won’t know how much they’ll earn from the harvest until initial payments are made early next year.
The main factor influencing price is the size of the apple crop in Washington state, which is more than 10 times larger than the Okanagan’s harvest.
The Washington State Tree Fruit Association is predicting a harvest of 131 million standard 40-pound boxes, down slightly from last year’s crop of 133 million boxes.