Late season
This year’s growing season has been characterized by a cool spring and later blossoming, which means that the harvest is delayed compared to last year. At the same time, the cool August weather provides favorable conditions for beautifully colored fruit.
Despite the warm weather in July, this year has not matched last year in terms of average daily temperature. In our orchards, the accumulated temperature sums are about 17 days behind last year. A major reason is the very cool spring, which resulted in this year’s blossoming occurring about 9 days later than last year. This means that especially our earliest varieties will reach picking maturity significantly later than usual. The last time we saw similar conditions for apple ripening was in 2017 and 2004.
However, there is an advantage to the cold weather we experienced in August. Low temperatures promote fruit coloring, and this year’s harvest looks to have good prospects for developing beautiful color.