How Labor Factors Into Apple Harvest

How Labor Factors Into Apple Harvest. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report.

Labor has been a big question mark over the last few years and so far this harvest season has not played a big factor even though some orchardists would like to see a few more hands picking. Bruce Grim with the Washington State Horticultural Association says it's interesting to see how the labor issues match up with the onset of fruit maturity.

GRIM: I don't have a lot of good information from folks yet in terms of how the maturity issue is playing out. It certainly appears that onset of maturity was not pushing some of the early Gala picks. They were able to push those back a few days, pick up some extra color and not impact the internal indices of the fruit.

He says there is another factor to consider.

GRIM: The weather thing will definitely play in the labor situation in terms of if we narrow the window we have in which to get all this fruit picked in optimum condition for a full 12 months of marketing, if we're able to achieve that with the labor force we have, I think we will be in great shape. If weather conditions begin to dictate because of a mid-October frost or a freeze in early November, that can narrow the window

That could mean fruit might be left on the trees.

GRIM: Last two years have been absolutely ideal. We knew we were short on pickers, shorter than we would have liked to have been certainly, we were blessed with a very wide window in which to be able to get fruit off and still maintain that optimal storage quality.

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