2014 Apple Harvest

The Washington apple industry is poised for another record year and according to Bruce Grim with the Washington State Horticulture Association, it won't be long before we know how things will shake out.

GRIM: Gala picking is underway. It appears that there across the board will be kind of a range of sizes perhaps maybe a size larger than what we might have seen last year for example. But again, it's been a pretty ideal growing season with the exception of the exceedingly hot July and a reasonably hot August as well so I think that may tend to hold fruit size down a little. That's not to say that it won't will be very good.

Gala harvest was postponed in some places in hope that cooler weather would help pick up some more color on some varieties.

GRIM: What we are hearing is that people are picking at or above estimate and so we think that is reflective of fruit size. It's kind of hard to tell on Gala because in many instances there will be multiple picks so the first pick and the first run of fruit will tend to be larger, better color because you are selectively picking that kind of fruit.

As for the record crop, Grim says it's hard to tell at this point but:

GRIM: There is the old adage that as the cherry crop goes so goes the apple crop and we picked a very large, above estimate cherry crop so I think that will translate into the notion perhaps we might wind up above our current estimate on the apple side of things but that's more of a conjecture than based on clear information at this point.

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