Most of us feel that cool fall air or get back into the routine of school and think about coming to the farm to pick some New York apples. If you are a Hudson Valley local, apples may cross your mind when you are enjoying the fragrant and beautiful orchards full of apple blossoms in early May. Apple farmers are thinking about apples 365 days a year.
Apples take about a year to grow. Yes believe it or not when you pick apples in the fall if you look closely at the tree you can see buds forming for next year's apples.
A fall frost typically brings out the bright red color in apples, sometimes it will cause them to drop off the trees if they are really ripe. This is an easy fix for apple farmers as they can just pick these ripe apples the day before the frost.
In winter, trees slowly go into hibernation and the hardy buds that grew in the fall are pretty much unaffected by below zero temperatures. This is why deer in the orchard during the winter are so much trouble. The new bud growth on the apple trees are their favorite meal. Just a couple of deer can eat what would have grown into hundreds of apples. The fencing we have placed around the orchard has made a huge difference in protecting our precious crop.
As the hibernating animals are waking up and the others start migrating back in the spring, the apple trees start to wake up and blossom from those little buds that grew last fall. The exact date of bloom, aka flowers on the apple trees, depends on the weather. Mother nature determines when the blossoms will come each year and unfortunately for farmers, it is not up for discussion. A certain number of warm "growing degree days", GDD, are needed to fully awaken the apple trees. A late winter of warmer days can be trouble because the trees wake up to then be hit with freezing temperatures.
Apple growers track the stages of growth for each apple variety closely to determine when to bring in the bees. Each flower on an apple tree has the potential to become an apple, but it must be pollinated by our bee friends for this to happen. Bees do not come out in the cold, they instead choose to stay cozy in their hive. They are also not fans of rain or wind. If bees do not pollinate in the 12 to 72 hour window of peak blossom, we have missed our chance for those flowers to become apples. Visit our Bee Blog to learn more about pollination on our farm.
When homeowners hear frost they rush to bring their flower pots inside or cover up their garden because as you know freezing temperatures kill flowers. Johnny Apple Seed has limited options in defending the delicate apple blossoms from Jack frost. What you may see and hear is the sound of the wind machines in the early AM hours when it is coldest. The hope is to encourage warmer air to move down and not let frost settle on the trees and baby blossoms.
Once blossom petals fall our trees are full of tiny adorable baby apples. They grow in clusters of 5 or 6. You can see the stamens of the apple flowers on the bottoms of these little guys. Typically weather is warmer and wetter during this time, which brings all types of pests trying to nest and infect our leaves and fruit. Apple farmers spend most of their time scouting the orchard as we only spray if there is a problem. This is called Integrated Pest Management (IPM) which is a more thoughtful approach to growing that you may not find at other commercial orchards. This is the time when a bad frost can really do serious damage. It happened in 2012 and now again, although possibly not so bad, on May 18, 2023.
Living creatures are made of water. Humans’ bodies are made up of around 60 percent water, babies around 75 percent, and apples are 86 percent water. Think of those baby apples on the tree like a little sack of water. What does water do in temperatures below zero? Freeze! Yes that means that the baby apples turn into ice, the level of damage has many variables. Illustration by Hugo Lin. ThoughtCo.
Here is a list of criteria that affect the outcome of a spring frost.
How far along were the baby apples in growth? Each variety grows at different rates in the spring. This is why when you come apple picking in the fall we usually have 3 to 5 of our 32 varieties ready to pick on any given weekend.. Early varieties, ready to pick in August and September, were farther along on May 18th, so these toddlers stood tougher against the frost. This is why having many different varieties is an advantage to small apple farms even though growing and caring for them is more complicated.
Where were the trees located? Typically along the main orchard rows are a little warmer. Frost will not settle on hillsides. Higher altitudes are typically better although once again, flat fields can get into trouble. Sometimes it is colder just a few miles down the road even when the geography of the orchard is similar.
Did the wind work? There has to be enough warm air above the trees for the wind machines to push down. Some farms without wind machines even tried having helicopters fly over their fruit trees.
Did the water work? Sometimes you can irrigate the trees which form a layer of protection around the apples. It could also raise the temperature slightly enough to keep the baby apples safe.
Did fire work? I'm sure everyone can remember the famous sceen from A Walk In the Clouds where they lit fires and put on wings to save the grapes. This seemed to work ok until the vineyard itself lit fire. As we know there are burn bans in early spring for a reason.
The morning of the frost battle has ended. What do growers do next? They scout for damage. Experienced growers can see a lot from the outside of the apple, but checking the inside gives us more of an idea as to the extent of damage. This was the perfect time for us to take the family on one of our new golf carts that guests will be able to rent this summer and fall to cruise around the orchard.
Here you can see these apples froze and split.
Here you can see the inside of a healthy apple, bright green with white seeds. Compared to one that received damage, darker with sometimes browning seeds.
It is hard to say right away what will happen to the damaged apples. Will they stop growing and drop dead from the tree? Continue growing into a big rotten apple that we will then have to pick off and compost? Many apples may grow and taste just fine, but on the outside they will not look so pretty. The stronger apples who were able to stand up to the late spring frost will grow into beautiful apples for you to pick with your family this fall. Certain varieties are looking great and we expect them to bear a large crop this fall, weather pending. Our farm has a diverse geography with few valleys and we often get lucky when a spring frost settles in the Hudson Valley.
