There is nothing more beautiful than an apple orchard in full bloom. Our orchard did not disappoint this year as it was outstandingly beautiful with the vibrancy of the blossoms, a blue sky as its backdrop and brilliant sunshine. Full bloom was on the 17th of April, which was about ten days earlier than in past years. Earlier bloom results in an earlier harvest. However, an early bloom also creates the possibility of crop loss due to cold temperatures. Our overnight low was 31 degrees last night and that’s not exactly what we like to see at this point.
Apples are pollinated during their bloom period by bees and other insects. These insects transfer pollen from the flowers of one apple tree to those of another. This is known as cross pollination. We have a local apiary that brings hives of bees into our orchards strictly for pollination purposes. When the pollination period is over, the bees are removed to prevent any damage to their hives by the use of chemicals and equipment in the orchard.
The trees have now gone through “petal fall.” Petal fall or petal drop is when petals fall off the flowers of the apple trees. At this stage, apples are starting to develop. This is a critical time for disease control of the developing fruit. The trees are generating new leaves which are highly susceptible to disease and the fruitlets are also susceptible to infection from fungi that cause scab, rust, moldy core, blossom rot and powdery mildew. At this time fire blight infection remains a constant threat as well. A grower needs to be on constant alert during this time frame and have management strategies in place. Controlling diseases during bloom through petal fall is critical to prevent serious damage to the developing fruit.
We’ve planted new trees in the orchards these past few weeks. Some were replacements for the trees destroyed by the straight line winds of last summer. Others were new varieties that we wanted to be able to offer to our customers. These trees were all dwarf root stock so with a little luck the trees should be producing fruit in about 2 to 3 years.
We can attempt to control insects and diseases that cause damage to the fruit as it develops but we can’t do much about what Mother Nature throws at us. We can only keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best as another season is underway!