00:00Welcome back to AccuWeather Early.
00:05Thanks for watching on this Thursday morning.
00:08Now it's time for the Agriculture Advantage.
00:10This week's Agricultural Advantage looks at the apple harvest.
00:18This week's look at the agricultural advantage is the apple harvest.
00:23U.S. produces about 11 billion pounds of apples annually.
00:27From spring frost to summer disease, pressure weather impacted this year's apple crop.
00:33Joining us is Carrie Peter, Associate Research Professor of Tree Fruit Pathology at Penn State.
00:39Thank you so much for being with us.
00:40I literally eat an apple a day.
00:42Yeah, she really does every day.
00:45What are apple growers seeing in this year's harvest?
00:48And how did weather affect apple size, color, and most importantly, the flavor?
00:53Well, thank you so much for having me today.
00:57The overall, the apple harvest is excellent this year.
01:01Growers and packers have been really pleased with what's coming out of the orchard.
01:05As far as how the weather influenced it, we had consistent rain from May through July,
01:12which really encouraged cell division in the fruit.
01:15So we have really nice sized fruit as a result of that.
01:18And then in the last two months, we've been very fortunate to have overnight cool temperatures,
01:23which has really encouraged fruit color.
01:25So consequently, we have a lot of red apples coming out of the orchard this time of year.
01:31If you had to pick one weather impact that influences apples, what would that be?
01:39Or like anything else, it's a combination.
01:42I think it's a combination and a tie between temperature at the wrong time of the year, especially low temperature.
01:50We had some frosts in April, which can really negatively affect the buds, fruit buds.
01:58And then also rainfall.
02:00Rainfall can affect fruit size.
02:03It can also stress out the trees.
02:04So between those two combinations, temperature and also rainfall play really critical roles to the overall health and the outcome of what comes out of a crop.
02:16So you study fruit diseases.
02:18Which apple diseases were most challenging this year?
02:21Are any getting worse as weather patterns change?
02:24Well, you know, the most favorite variety on the market is Honeycrisp.
02:30And that is a big moneymaker for the growers.
02:33But unfortunately, Honeycrisp has a lot of problems.
02:36And the most noise disease-wise that I heard this year was Bitter Rot, which is a really problematic fruit rot on Honeycrisp.
02:44What's so challenging about it is that the initial infection starts early in the season.
02:50You need the right warm temperature and the right rainfall, and the infection occurs, but then it goes silent.
02:56And you really don't see the fruit rot until much later in the season and much later's harvest.
03:01And so this year, many growers were caught off guard by Bitter Rot on Honeycrisp.
03:06Another disease that kind of caught growers off guard was powdery mildew.
03:10Powdery mildew is opposite of many other fungal diseases that like wetness.
03:16Powdery mildew likes dry weather.
03:18And in April, we had lots of dry days, which were great for powdery mildew.
03:23So some varieties of even peaches as well and apples were afflicted with powdery mildew.
03:29And once you see disease, there's not much you can do.
03:32So Bitter Rot and powdery mildew were two diseases that were very much on my radar this year.
03:37And of course, I'm sorry, go ahead.
03:40Oh, and of course, I was going to say technology.
03:43Is there anything in the latest technology that can better protect apple orchards from these diseases and any adverse weather?
03:54Well, so as far as technology irrigation,
03:57irrigations really will protect orchards from sort of the feast and famine,
04:02from precipitation that we experience year to year.
04:05And it gives a consistent level of kind of water to the roots.
04:11What people don't realize is that the initiation of fruiting buds starts the previous season.
04:17And if you don't have adequate moisture feeding those roots, you won't get your fruiting buds.
04:23And so your crop yield can be impacted.
04:25So technology is a really big, I mean, I'm sorry,
04:29irrigation is a really big tool that growers should be using in the orchard.
04:33As far as on the disease front of things,
04:37anything that can help you clean up your orchard.
04:39So there's lots of different as far as like tech things that can remove debris from underneath the the trees that would remove leaves and fruits and any other debris,
04:54because that is a source.
04:57Those items are sources of plant pathogens, which then can feed disease the following year.
05:02And I always tell growers that, you know, the best offense is a good defense.
05:07Love that.
05:07We love a good sports reference.
05:09All right, Kent Peter, Associate Professor, Research Professor of Tree Fruit Pathology at Penn State.
05:15Thank you so much for joining us.
05:16You know what I'm going to say, Keri, we are Penn State.
05:20You're darn right we are.
Comments