Forrence says warm December not necessarily good news for young apple trees
Forrence says warm December not necessarily good news for young apple trees
While people may have enjoyed the warm December weather in upstate New York, it wasn’t good news for apples.
In mid-December, Peter Forrence, president of Forrence Orchards Inc., in Peru, NY, explained why to The Produce News.
“In recent years we have been replacing older large trees with new smaller trees that yield more fruit,” said Forrence. “These smaller trees have much shallower root systems. They can take the gradual normal weather changes leading into winter, but they don’t fare well if it’s very warm one week and the next it drops down to single digits. It prevents what is called hardening off — or in simple terms — from preparing for winter.”
Forrence Orchards is a multi-generational family-owned-and-operated company that began in agriculture in 1833. Forrence is one of three cousins who own the firm, which today grows, packs and ships apples exclusively.
Forrence said the current stored crop is great in quality and that movement has been fabulous.
“We don’t store until next year’s harvest,” he said. “We choose to finish in May or June. The market is never particularly great in the summer because people want summer fruits, like watermelons, rather than apples — despite that apples are one of the best fruits for the digestive system.”
Market prices on apples could always be better. Forrence pointed out that every year it seems that growers in either the West or East have too many apples, which rarely balances perfectly.
“The East has a large crop this year, so it’s been a real battle to get higher prices here,” he said. “Usually at this time of year the market is stronger because holiday demand is high. But that’s not the case. We have significantly higher production costs than we had five years ago, but we’re getting five-year-ago prices.”
In addition to its domestic business Forrence Orchards also exports apples. It expects to begin shipping to the U.K. in the New Year.
The company is especially strong in the production of McIntosh apples, but Forrence said that new club varieties are picking up steam rapidly.
“The Honeycrisp continues to grow in demand, but there are challenges related to growing and storing it,” he said.
“New club varieties developed at Cornell University, the ‘SnapDragon’ and ‘RubyFrost,’ are gaining headway,” he continued. “Although the volumes aren’t high enough yet to make a good assessment on their success, we feel they will do very well. The ‘Snapdragon’ especially has immense potential because its flavor is similar to the Honeycrisp, but without the challenges.”
