Stress is good? - Fall/Harvest Update

Look, I get it. Crops that live the luxury lifestyle are not as healthy and fantastic as those that don't. But enough is enough! Some stress is good, but a lot is not. The past few years have been unnerving for fruit trees and growers alike. From too much rain, to not enough; first it’s too hot, then it’s too cold. There is no normal anymore. Each of Mother Nature’s wacky mood swings creates a new definition of, a new threshold for stress – yours and the plant’s.

Three out of the last four years in western New York have had excessively soggy springs. Then there was last year’s drought, and now this year’s ongoing autumn heat wave. And a tip of the hat to old man winter for all the crazy winters and early springs as "icing" on the cake. The trees have no idea which way to turn, and, honestly, neither do the farmers. Well, that's not entirely true. But with an already overloaded "to do" list and expenses always on the radar, how can growers be expected to do more, when they're already overloaded?

Farmers can lumber through a cold winter, or a dry summer, as long as they occur infrequently and don’t happen within the same growing season. The problem is that these events are unpredictable and, more importantly, their effects add up and create scenarios we’re not used to dealing with. They have severe, lasting effects on tree growth, productivity, and crop quality.

Right now, the hot, dry weather – following a long, cool, wet spring and summer – is creating serious problems with the apple crop.

But the more important quandary is wondering what this will mean for tree health and productivity next year. You see, the tree itself is stressed at a time when it needs to be finishing off the crop, slowing down, and preparing for winter. Instead, trees are using carbohydrates at a higher rate than they’re currently producing them and they’re consuming water at an extraordinary rate. There isn't an end in site to the dryness, though temperatures will drop in the next day or so. These stressors will likely have a negative effect on your tree’s health and fruit bud quality next year, and the year after.

Climate change is having a real and cumulative impact on orchards and we - as a community - need to know how to address this new paradigm. What to do? Technology certainly holds some of the answers. But becoming better horticulturists is where the solutions lie.

We need to learn how to grow fruit under less than normal conditions. We need resilient orchards that require less “babying” and intervention, and can function more or less on their own. This doesn’t necessarily mean a return to growing all fruit on 40 x 40 spacings with standard rootstocks. Nor does this mean leaving your orchard to whatever nature can hurl at it. It does mean that we need a better way to measure plant stress so we can know when and how to appropriately intervene, and to intervene less frequently. We need to go back to basics and revise them for uncharted climate territory.

This year’s crop is well under way and assuming everyone’s got enough labor, 95% of the crop will be in within the next 3 weeks. How long it lasts in storage and its utilization quality are still big questions. So, we need to learn from this year, because we don’t know what next year will be like. We can’t even begin to fathom the craziness we’ll have to endure in 2018. So, here are a few tips:

I have thoughts on this that go beyond this newsletter on how growers can help themselves and their orchards at the same time. But we'll leave that for the winter. For now, just be aware that your orchards are still going through a rough patch and whatever you can do to help reduce the "bad" stress will only pay off in dividends down the road .

Orchard Tour and Hors d’oeuvres
Saturday, October 8, 2017 ~ 2:00pm-5:00pm
Held at Eve's Cidery 308 Beckhorn Hollow Road, Van Etten, NY
Terroir is a is a French word used to describe the way in which a wine reflects a sense of place. We want to show you the elements that make up the terroir at Eve’s Cidery. Some of these elements include where we grow our apples, how we grow our apples and which varieties we grow. Get your blood flowing and join cider growers Autumn and Ezra and their special guest, pomologist Mike Biltonen for a tour of their Albee Hill orchards. 3:00pm Mike will discuss Growing Apples “Incorrectly “or, how to grow better apples for eating and cider. Modern apple growing has indoctrinated many to ignore the benefits that wildness, nature and biodiversity can provide to growing better apples. But the rising interest in growing apples for cider – and not as cosmetically perfect dessert apples – provides us with great opportunity to re-learn how to grow apples with nature in the driver’s seat. In effect, we need to relearn how to grow apples incorrectly by unlearning how to grow them “correctly.” This approach is better for people, the environment, the apples, and the cider – what’s not to embrace? FREE, but you must RSVP and get a ticket. Space is limited.
For more information, full schedule or to register, go to: Eve's Cidery

Assessing Fruit Quality at Harvest
Saturday, October 14, 2017 ~ 11:00am-4:00pm
Held at Windborne Farms, 3796 Windborne Way, Trumansburg, NY 14886
Determining when fruit is ready to pick can be tricky especially if you’re looking for specific quality characteristics, such as for hard cider, storability, or fresh eating quality. Fruit is NOT magically ready when it turns red! In this workshop we’ll discover how to assess fruit quality and learn how much fruit quality can change over just a few days or weeks. Learning how to determine optimal harvest time involves knowing your objectives, taking note of obvious changes such as seed color, skin color, aroma, acidity, tannins, and overall taste, and measuring brix, starch, titratable acidity, tannins, firmness, and more. We’ll go over each metric and how to use affordable instrumentation accurately.
Space is limited, pre-registration is required.
$40 or $35 for those who pre-register by 10/8

Climate Change and Agriculture
Saturday, October 21, 2017 ~ 10:am-3:00pm
Just Be Cause, 1013 W State St, Ithaca, NY 14850
Facilitated by Mike Biltonen and Jay Smith
Climate change has been affecting our farms for several decades now. The science and data show that there will continue to be dramatic impacts on every farmers’ ability to grow and distribute food. Agriculture is one of our greatest tools for reducing and even potentially reversing the effects of modern industrial society on our global climate, but it also one of the greatest contributors to climate change. Something has to give. Come learn about how we can work together as a community to ensure local stability in local food production and security!
Sliding Scale $25 - $50
For more information or to register go to Groundswell