Apple Varieties Pt 1

Apple Varieties Pt 1

Bob Larson
Bob Larson
With today's Fruit Grower Report, I'm Bob Larson. Like the varieties of apples grown in Washington state, times they are a changin'. More varieties of Washington apples are currently grown than ever before. But, the number of varieties has brought with it a changing of the guard ... of sorts ...

Devaney ... "This year, we saw for the first time, the projection for Gala apples being larger than Red Delicious.

Red Delicious had been the biggest volume variety in our state for decades and having it move into second place was a change and it's less about there being less total Red Delicious than just the growth has been in other varieties."

Washington State Tree Fruit Association president Jon DeVaney says consumers have driven the expansion of variety offerings, including the most anticipated apple in some time ...

Devaney ... "We've had an ongoing trend to diversification of apple varieties in our state and that's part of the reason that the volumes are fairly steady to even slightly down this year is there's a lot of orchard replanting going on to new varieties. A whole long list of them, the most famous being Cosmic Crisp which is coming on line really next fall."

DeVaney says there MAY be a few Cosmic Crisp out this year ...

Devaney ... "It takes three to five years for an orchard to come into full production, so it's really next year that we're expecting commercially marketable volumes of fruit, but the trees already have to be in the ground and moving towards production and growing already in order to be ready for next year."

Listen tomorrow for more on the apple variety options and other changes in Washington apples.

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