Frosty weather may take shine off apple crop
Area orchard owner hopes cold won’t lead to repeat of ‘05 failure
By Brian Morelli
Iowa City Press-Citizen
The sudden chilly weather after days with temperatures in the 80s could hurt apple growers.
Chug Wilson, the owner of Wilson’s Orchard, 2924 Orchard Lane N.E., said the cold likely will cost him some of his apple crop this year.
“We don’t know yet. The cold is not through, and it is supposed to get even colder. It depends on where the bud development is. We have some that are going to be destroyed,” Wilson said.
Wilson’s Orchard, a popular pick-your-own place, has about 6,000 trees.
Temperatures have dipped below freezing at times this past week, and the forecast calls for temps hovering around freezing today .
Barbara Mayes, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in the Quad Cities said the cold, which has dropped to the teens the past few days, will stick around for a little while, but the pattern could break later next week.
She said the forecast for the next few days shows overnight lows in the mid- to upper-teens. Early next week the lows will be in the 20s, before likely climbing to more seasonally appropriate daytime temps in the 40s.
“It looks like this pattern will hold on for a little while, but it will break, maybe by later in the week,” Mayes said. “This is a fairly unusual cold snap just in its duration. To have it be so cold for so long is fairly rare.”
It is tough to know for sure what will happen with Wilson’s apples, he said.
Apples’ vulnerability depends on what stage of development it is in, and each apple strain has its own pace, he said.
“There are 50 percent, maybe more, in jeopardy,” Wilson said of his crop.
Right now, many of his trees are in what is called the tight-cluster stage. In this stage, 27 degrees will kill 10 percent of the crop and 21 degrees would kill 90 percent.
“Galas, red delicious, they are already at tight-cluster. The leaves around the buds are showing. The clusters themselves are in a ball. You can see a little color, but they haven’t come out on the buds,” Wilson said.
The good news for Wilson, he said, is that his two most popular varieties, the Golden Crisps and Songs of September, appear safe.
“They are way down the list,” Wilson said of the stage at which the weather could claim that crop.
Wilson said some growers will pump water out overnight to protect the apples. The fruit will take heat from the water even as the water freezes on it. Ideally, it keeps the apples about 32 degrees, he said.
Wilson doesn’t do that, though, because he said it only has “very marginal” success.
In 2005, Wilson lost nearly 100 percent of his crop. Only one strain survived. Mother Nature unleashed below freezing temperatures in mid-to-late-May that year when his trees were in full bloom.
He is hopeful there isn’t a repeat of 2005, but for now he can’t be sure. He won’t know which trees made it until May.
“We maybe able to sneak through, we’ll just have to see how cold it gets,” Wilson said.
