10/20/08 Apple Harvest

Apple Harvest. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. The Washington State apple harvest is in high gear. This week and next are going to be the busiest times for apple growers as the Red Delicious, Granny Smith and Fiji crops are into full swing. Quality of the fruit is looking really good according to the Washington Apple Commission's Todd Fryhover. FRYHOVER: The Granny Smith looks fantastic, it sized up well. Harvest is going along terrifically. The Fuji's that I have seen although there have been some harvested a little bit earlier look great. Coloration is fantastic, sizing looks good. It looks like a very promising crop of Fuji as well. The biggest issue this year was how many hands there would be to pick apples. FRYHOVER: Labor in some places is an issue. I think all growers would prefer to be harvesting at a faster clip than they are right now with the weather, the way that it is. But so far the weather is holding very nicely. Labor supplies are adequate I would say. But definitely with the potential of the weather cooling off here in the next few weeks we need to get this crop harvested. As far as numbers of apples picked it is still very early but it does appear that the Gala crop has picked out at about half a million boxes more than anticipated. Size for many of the apples may be down a bit but Fryhover doesn't believe that will be a problem. FRYHOVER: One size smaller could be a 10% reduction in our crop volume so were still a little hesitant to give a firm number of the Red Delicious but the sizing in general is about one size smaller than normal which actually works out good for the export side because most of our markets take 88's 100's and smaller. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.