More On Apple Harvest

More On Apple Harvest. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

The other day my neighbor gave me three of the largest Honeycrisp apples I have ever seen, really of any apple variety. These were larger than a softball and very sweet and juicy. Todd Fryhover, President of the Washington Apple Commission says conditions have been very good for growing apples.

FRYHOVER: The growing conditions have been ideal and that is what is making this crop maybe slightly larger than what everybody anticipated so the weather has been absolutely perfect for larger sized fruits or growing fruits that typically grow smaller so that’s one of the reasons why you may be hearing this crop could be a little bit larger than what we anticipated.

The big, big issue right now is not the wonderful fruit but in the inability to get it off the trees. Labor is tight.

FRYHOVER: This lack of labor is going to put a lot of pressure on our industry because obviously weather creates a timeline. That timeline is coming up very quickly as is evident with temperatures today in the low 30’s. So there is vast concerns about getting this fruit off the tree in a timely manner to have the optimum quality fruit for the marketplace.

With the other apple growing regions hurting because of the drought this summer it would be a real shame to then not be able to pick this wonderful crop which has become very much sought after around the states. Fryhover says that while the H2A program has been helping it just cannot provide all the additional labor needed. So time will tell how the 2012 apple crop gets recorded into the record books.

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