Tree Fruit Harvest Pt 2
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson with today’s Fruit Grower Report. Here it is September already, and harvest reports from the apple and pear orchards are sounding pretty good so far.
Washington State Tree Fruit Association president, Jon DeVaney says the more temperate weather this year has been the key …
DeVANEY … “The temperatures were much more moderate, and we started getting cool nights as we’ve gone into September, which really helps for color development as well on our apple crop, as well as providing really favorable and beneficial weather for harvest itself.”
This year’s challenges, DeVaney says aren’t as bad …
DeVANEY … “When you’re managing high heat or smokey conditions and you have a lot of crews out in orchards, it can be difficult to manage, and you can lose picking time. But when the weather has been favorable, we’ve been able to manage a larger crop this year on apples and a more average crop on pears with the labor we have available, which is really helpful.”
Helpful, yes, but not just in volume …
DeVANEY … “Not only just normal size of the crop, but good quality. That’s really essential for getting consumers to have repeat purchases and the good weather conditions we’ve had have really resulted in great fruit quality.”
Crop timing, DeVaney says isn’t a problem like it was for cherries this year …
DeVANEY … “For apples and pears those challenges are not quite the same in that we have a longer period to sell that fruit and that’s going to help these growers quite a lot.”
Again, that’s WSTFA president, Jon DeVaney on this year’s tree fruit harvest.
