Pink Lady Apples

Apple harvest is under way here in the northwest. Some early Gala varieties are being picked but some of the later varieties like Pink Lady are waiting in the wings according to Pink Lady America's, Alan Taylor.

TAYLOR: They don't call it farming for nothing. That is you have the good years but in the back of your mind you know that someday it'll probably even out. But when I look at the Pink Lady business, we've been on a roll now for a string of seasons and it looks like it may be continuing.

The Pink Lady, also known as Cripps Pink, is a later season apple but there is also a new earlier variety this year. New varieties do take a bit to get established.

TAYLOR: We were under 3 million boxes just two years ago and last year we were over just 3.4-million and this year we're right around 3.9-million and I haven't seen the projection for this coming year but I'd be willing to bet we'll slide right through that 4-million level and go on from there. Probably significantly.

Adding a new variety of apple to an orchard takes a lot more than just a few trees.

TAYLOR: When you talk about putting in a new orchard the figure that's thrown around out there is now $40-thousand dollars an acre if you start with bare ground and so if you put in, let's say 10 acres, that's a lot of money. Or a hundred acres. The Pink Lady business or the apple business in general is not for the faint of heart or those who don't have a few dollars in the bank.

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