Fruit Check

The 2013 apple harvest is moving along even with some weather issues. Bruce Grim, executive director of the Washington State Horticultural Association catches us up.

GRIMM: Well it appears so far we're about to wind up Gala harvest, in fact it's probably wound up. Best information I have is we've probably picked to estimate or a little short of estimate on Gala's. That's a crop we thought we would pick pretty close to estimate on and the Red's, Golden's, Fuji's we knew we were going to be short on and the information I'm getting back is that we are generally picking short on Golden's. Not near far enough into the Red harvest to say much about it.

And of course you can't talk harvest without discussing who is doing the picking.

GRIMM: Labor appears to be adequate but tight - hearing that specifically from pear growers in both Hood River and the Wenatchee River Valley area but again those are both winding down and will be finishing up this week probably. But overall as I say the weather has been generally helpful. We've got a couple of rain days and time lost to harvest because of the rains but otherwise it's generally cooled down and been more fall-like in terms of temps and so we just need a broad window here for about one more month and we'll get this crop picked with the kind of condition we need for year-long marketing.

Marketing is going to be key this year with the other U.S. growing areas having full crops.

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