Apple and pear crops looking good but growers still feeling effects of Fiona
Growers keeping an eye on the weather as Atlantic tropical storm season continues
A summer of warm, sunny weather with a smattering of rain has many tree-fruit growers on Prince Edward Island smiling as the harvest begins.
But there are still lingering effects from post-tropical storm Fiona, and fear that another major weather event could derail this year's success.
"It's basically our best crop ever. We've had sufficient amount of rain earlier on in the season and lots of heat, lots of sun, and things are about a week ahead of our traditional year," said Geoff Boyle, manager of The Grove Orchard and U-Pick in Warren Grove, P.E.I.
They grow a wide variety of apples, as well as butterscotch and Shinseiki Asian pears, and produce apple cider.
Boyle said they could have used a little more rain, but they had a drip irrigation system standing by and "it seems as though the fruit and the trees are liking what we've got this year. So far, so good."
On the not-so-bright side, he said there is still lingering damage in the orchard from post-tropical storm Fiona.
The Grove had to replace 3,000 trees, and it will take about five years before they come back into production.
"Our trellis system, which supports our trees, we've really fortified it with additional posts, additional wires," Boyle said. "Not saying that it would withstand Fiona and we would not lose some fruit, but certainly [a big storm] wouldn't do the damage that it did the last time."
The Grove is still tweaking its support system two years after that damage, he noted: "Occasionally we'll drive by a row and notice that the wire's broken now and that is basically a result of the stress from Fiona that just didn't show up right away.
"As the trees are getting fruit on them now, that puts a load on the wire and if it was weak at all, it potentially could break."
Boyle said he's keeping an eye on the weather forecast as the second anniversary of Fiona approaches.
It makes you a little bit anxious for certain, but some things are out of your control, so you just have to live with it and deal with it.— Geoff Boyle
"It makes you a little bit anxious for certain, but some things are out of your control, so you just have to live with it and deal with it," he said. "That's part of farming."
Boyle said he and other apple growers are also dealing with the pain of prices that plummeted last season, especially for the highly sought-after Honeycrisp apple.
"Last year was a wake-up call in the industry, with the change in pricing on Honeycrisp at the wholesale level," Boyle said. "Our friends in Washington state, in the States, decided to just basically dump apples on the market last year, which really affected the price commercially."
He said that prompted many growers to look at "other avenues to try to get as much value for our crop as we can."
Boyle said The Grove is adding new systems for sorting and packing apples and for making cider, as well as a new machine to make apple cider doughnuts.
Rebuilding in Riverdale
At Riverdale Orchard and Cidery, near Bonshaw, the apple crop is also looking better than last year's.
Co-owner Alex Jamieson said that 12 months after Fiona, "the trees were still in a bit of a shock with the battering they got, but this year there's more coming through, and next year I'm expecting more."
Jamieson said the orchard lost 300 trees that were producing at full capacity, at eight to nine years old.
He said he got one row harvested, taking more than 1,000 pounds of apples off the trees before the storm struck. But with another seven rows left to pick going into the Sept. 23 weekend, he estimated they lost around 10,000 pounds of apples.
"It was quite drastic because we use all our apples to make the cider, and so we were left with no apples," Jamieson said.
It's a financial thing, having to spend money when you shouldn't really have to because you've got your own product. But yeah, we survived.— Alex Jamieson
"We had to go to other orchards on the Island and buy apples... It's a financial thing, having to spend money when you shouldn't really have to because you've got your own product. But yeah, we survived."
Like Boyle, Jamieson said his operation could have used a bit more rain this summer.
"I was out checking the apples a few weeks ago and they were still quite small, and I'm putting that down to the lack of water," he said. "But we've had a couple of good rain showers since, and they're all swelled up quite nicely."
Jamieson and his wife started the orchard and cidery as a retirement project for Alex when the couple moved to P.E.I. from Scotland: "I came here to retire and I started this. I just forgot to look up the meaning of the word."
Now it's up for sale.
"We have started all this from scratch," he said. "These were just empty fields. We built the barn and we planted the trees. We made the cider.
"We've taken it to the level that we can take it to and none of us is getting any younger."
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