Most of us don’t think about apples until there’s a chill in the air and the leaves start to tinge. For local apple growers, though, predicting autumn’s bounty starts when the rhubarb is up and Memorial Day plans are being made. Even novices with a crabapple in the yard can gaze into the crystal ball of pomme potential – the apple blossom.
Each apple blossom has the full capacity to become a perfect individual fruit. That is, if fickle spring weather doesn’t throw it a knuckleball. Though they are amazingly hardy, (“In a good year, one apple tree is enough,” goes one saying), apple blossoms are not invincible. When severe weather hits, enough blossoms may be damaged to put a dent into fall’s harvest.
Last year was a good one overall for apple growers in New Hampshire, according to Bill Lord, Retired Extension Fruit Specialist with the University of New Hampshire. Some orchards, though, suffered too much freeze damage in the spring. In Vermont, “we had a slightly lower-than-average yield but higher than the year before . . . Overall, most growers were saying that last year was one of the best crop years in a long time,” says Elena Garcia, Tree Fruit Specialist with the University of Vermont Extension Service.
Crops two years ago were another story. According to Garcia, “the 2002 year, we had a 25 percent crop loss due to a freeze during bloom. The southern part of the state was hardest hit because the blossoms were more developed than in other parts of the state.”
Besides an outright freeze, other conditions can affect apple fruition. Honeybee activity, for instance, plays a critical role in the fertilization of blossoms. “Last year,” says Garcia, “during late April and early May, the weather was cool and wet, and this affected pollination conditions. Honeybees work better at temperatures above 65°F and on sunny days.” Temperatures during the previous winter can also influence fruit development. Extremely low winter temperatures could result in smaller fruit, and less of it. Lord warns that premature warmth, which opens blossoms too early, and hail, which can damage fruits, are also risk factors.
So how is the 2004 apple crop shaping up? “Trees right now are healthy and are sporting a large number of strong flower buds,” says Lord. “Winter temperatures were temperate, normal for our area (temperatures were also quite uniform, lacking those wild swings that [in many years] cause more damage than absolute cold), and we had enough snow to protect roots from the effects of cold-temperature penetration deep into soils.”
Those conditions bode well, because the buds that will soon open into flowers were formed last summer. Besides looking at this year’s blossoms, we need to think about last year’s summer weather to figure out how good this year’s apple crop will be. Garcia warns, “If the growing conditions are not favorable for bud development to take place, then the next year’s crop is jeopardized. Conditions such as poor nutrition, poor light penetration, poor pest management, too much of a crop, weed competition, and lack of water can influence next year’s crop.”
Now, mixing last year’s bud-development conditions with a cup of weather this past winter and a pinch of foretelling this year’s blossom and pollination conditions, how will the apple-crop pie turn out this fall? Delectable, say Garcia and Lord. According to Garcia, “So far, the buds that I have forced (brought inside, placed them in water and under light) seem to be doing fine. So the big variables remain that pesky spring weather and the vagaries of honeybees.
There are a few steps the average Joe can take to swing the balance. “To attract pollinators, get rid of flowering weeds such as dandelions. These weeds compete with the apple blossoms for bees,” recommends Garcia. “You need to have two different cultivars of apples to have a crop. If you don’t have other apple trees nearby (crabapples are fine), then you can bring bouquets of apple blossoms and place them throughout the tree.”
And if a hard frost or poor honeybee performance prevail, well, you can always take steps to help out next year’s crop. The most important thing, according to Garcia, is to keep your apple trees healthy. “The healthier the tree is, the better it will survive winter and have a crop,” she advises. “Practices that reduce insects, mites, disease, increase light penetration into the orchard, etc. need to be followed.”
Fortunately, says Lord, “The apple tree typically has perhaps 10 times or more as many flowers than needed for a full crop, so there is some margin for error. It reminds me of a comment I once heard my grandfather make: ‘There are two crops every year: the one lost in the spring, and the one picked in the fall.’”