2021 Heat Dome Effect Puts a Lid on Pome Fruit Postharvest Plans - Growing Produce

Was the heat dome that struck the Pacific Northwest this summer really just a “once-in-a-millennium” event? Tom Auvil certainly hopes so.

“Once was enough for me,” the Orondo, WA, grower says.

Temperatures as high as 113F will have that kind of effect on even the most unflappable of apple growers. The immediate damage — between late June and mid-July — was distressing at the time. Postharvest, the news isn’t much better.

Judging by the number of empty bins in his bin yards as of late October, Auvil estimates that his crop will range between short (off 5 to 8 million of the 125 million fresh) and really short (10 to 15 million off the 125 million fresh).

“The largest volume of unused bins is the largest in recent memory — 10 years, perhaps 15 years — and does not consider any packout issues that can further reduce the fresh pack volume,” he says.

Not that Auvil didn’t try to limit damage from the get-go while making the best of the dilemma.

“We did strive to pick the advanced maturity ‘Gala’ prior to the August heat and finished the ‘Gala’ harvest about 10 days after the first pass,” he says. “We left the obvious sunburn behind — about five bins per acre — and then the packouts were still off about 10% below normal for early pools.”

Meanwhile, the ‘Granny’ harvest had about 10 bins per acre put on the ground, Auvil says, and the packouts for early pool were about normal. The season pool fruit is where there is risk of delayed sunburn, Auvil says, reducing packout 25% to...

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