Between the unusual spring weather experience in the area and the current drought conditions, orchards are having a difficult year.
This spring saw unusually warm temperatures followed by several hard freezes, which orchard owner Jason McClure said caused a significant loss in their numbers. And with the Midwest suffering from extreme heat for several weeks, the short-term focus has changed for the orchard’s several hundred new trees.
“We lost most of our tree fruit crop during those freezes,” he said. “We found that nothing’s really growing but we’re keeping them living.”
For the first two years trees grow in the (Miami County) orchard, he said, the focus is on getting them growing and putting down roots. The third year is when they start seeing apple production so when they lost trees in the severe storms last week, McClure said it was essentially a six year set back: three years it took to grow the trees and the three needed for new ones.
“We lost several trees because it’s been so dry the trees themselves are dry and the trunks are a little brittle and that wind blew through…we lost trees breaking down at the ground level,” he said. “It’s just been a very difficult year not only for us fruit growers but for everybody.
“I would say the row crop farmers are more year-to-year whereas what we grow is up to 30 years so it’s a 30-year investment,” McClure said. “So to have one year of loss is extremely difficult.”
However, some believe the dry weather also provides benefits for the orchards and their fruit. Peter Hirst, a Purdue University Extension fruit production specialist, said that in dry conditions a number of diseases that could plague the fruit won’t be as bad.
“When it’s dry, the fruit tends to be sweeter so we could potentially have sweeter apples and peaches,” he said. Yet he also said the unusually warm spring followed by the freezes caused more harm.
“The freeze caused widespread damage so the damages we see to the fruit crops are significant this year but we are going to see some good crops this year,” he said. “While there will still be some cosmetic damage the eating quality will still be good this year.”
With no clear end to the drought the future for this year’s crop is unsure. Hirst said if there is a significant amount of rain, the fruit could split as the dry weather has decreased the skin elasticity but “there’s nothing a grower can do about that, it rains when it rains.”
“I think the weather right now is unlikely to have an effect on the harvest in the fall,” Hirst said. “The biggest thing for the fruit is the freeze we had in the spring rather than the drought we’re having right now.”
McClure also said he wasn’t sure how it would affect the fall harvest but that they will “keep doing what we do,” such as their fall field trips, a pumpkin patch, ciders, hard ciders and wine.
“Even though we did have some freeze damage we still have some crops out there (and) the fruit is going to taste a lot sweeter,” Hirst said. “The eating quality is going to be fantastic.”