Early Concerns About The Next Apple Crop

Considering that we haven’t had our summer yet, most people’s minds have yet to turn to thoughts of the traditional autumn apple harvest.  But if your livelihood depends on this quintessential British crop, then the extremely harsh, elongated winter will be preying on your mind, as witnessed by pronouncements by the Tenbury Apple Group who are expressing concerns about what sort of year they can expect in Tenbury and the Teme Valley.

Their representative, Alec Wall, said recently, “We simply do not know what will happen but the blossom is certainly later this year than is usual.”  This is the second year in a row where there is likely to be a plethora of furrowed brows, with last year’s problems being caused by a combination of some late frost but also by the excessively wet summer, resulting in reduced activity amongst the bee population, so essential for pollination.

In more detail, the poor 2012 crop came about because the frost damaged the fragile blossom, while bees did not fly in the heavy rain that followed. The whole scenario was disappointing, because despite this, early hopes for 2012 had been promising. The two previous years had been successful.

There are concerns over the apples in Tenbury

Interestingly, different parts of the same orchard can be affected in different ways depending on the degree of shelter, meaning that one part of an orchard can be badly damaged while a nearby sheltered area could escape relatively unscathed.  Younger trees can normally stand up to the frost better than older trees.

Whereas the increased unseasonal rainfall is a more recent problem, frost has been a constant enemy to apple growers over the years. In the past, various different techniques have been tried to counteract the worst of it, including lighting fires in the orchards to try to keep the frost away.

Early crops are often gathered in July and this can run through until the end of August.  Early cooking varieties such as Bramley are most likely to be hardest hit by the late frost.  You may be surprised to know that despite the general feeling that some varieties are dying out, The Tenbury Apple Group, which plays a key role in the annual Apple Fest in the town, has still identified more than 300 different varieties grown in the area.

http://www.tenburywells.info/