The Year in Fruit 2018

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Despite thick smoke from this year’s raging forest fires and pricing pressures, most BC fruit growers were able to adapt and bring in an “average” or even an “above average” year in most sectors.

Every fruit-growing year is different and while ups and downs are expected, it’s seldom that most fruit commodities have an average or above average season in the same year. Such was 2018. Certainly there were challenges – there always are – but the smoke from devastating forest fires seemed to work for growers more than against and pests were kept at a minimum.

If there is a dark note on this year’s fruit report, it’s that growers are facing increasing pressures when it comes to pricing. It remains to be seen how changes in US trade and Canadian exports to new partner countries will impact an already stressed system for many farmers. Combine this with ongoing labour challenges and it’s enough to make a grower pull out their hair… or possibly their crops.

For now it’s time to take a deeper look at the 2018 fruit season:

Fewer but bigger apples

Apple growers like fourth-generation Lance Davison of Davison Orchards in Vernon are happy with the quality and volume they are seeing this year.

“What we found was that what we were down in yield, we made up a lot in quality,” he says. “It was kind of a different year in that way. We saw a lot of fruit colour and size before ripeness, which is a big difference. The ripeness and sugar came after that.”

Hank Markgraf, grower services manager with BC Tree Fruits noted overall yields are down about 20 to 25 per cent, but echoed Davison’s comments that the fruit size is much larger than last year.

“At the end of the day it will turn out to be similar for growers to how it was last year as we’ll pack more for that key size we want them to be in,” he says. “We’re probably packing similar, if not more packs per bin because it’s all marketable sizes. You kind of want to write this down in the text book and say, this is the year you need.”

Weather certainly played its part. The heat and sun of May got apples off to a great start so they were already established when June’s rains came, cooled things off and helped with growth. The heat in August was tempered by the smoke and Davison notes this helped keep sun burn down, but it did impact the family’s agritourism operations.

“For our business… tourism was down, so that part of it hurt us,” he says.

Markgraf says the smoke doesn’t impact the fruit, and agrees it did provide sunburn control.

“It we didn’t have the smoke, I think we would have seen a lot more fruit sunburn,” he notes. “It was much better tree growth with the overcast smoky skies that we had again.”

The early, sunny spring set growers up with good pollination levels. As the season progressed, irrigation was needed due to the heat, but Markgraf says growers are set up to meet that need. Then the cool September and rain storms (he notes it’s the third coldest September on record in Kelowna) were ideal for apple production. Harvests were about a week ahead of usual. For Davison, the harvest was a little more challenging than usual with the wet weather.

“We didn’t see a huge impact from it. I don’t know what usual is anymore,” he says of the weather and early harvest. We were definitely earlier than last year. So probably about average.”

Markgraf added, “Wild swings in weather cause you problems. We didn’t have any wild swings. It was more consistent in finishing varieties, rather than being on top of each other [as it was last year]. Harvest has been variety, after variety, after variety. Just the way you’d expect it to be.”

The cooler June weather did bring a few pest pressures according to Davison. Fungicides were important, but he felt there wasn’t a huge impact because he was on top of spraying. Pest issues included the standard leaf roller aphid and codling moth, which were well managed according to Markgraf. The apple clearwing moth is growing from area to area, but he feels it is manageable.

“On the disease side, it was a pretty easy year I’ve got to say. We all put on some apple scab control and some powdery mildew control and just went on,” he explains. “We are concerned about how fast the brown marmorated stink bug will move in the next couple of years. It’s being found in downtown Kelowna.”

Markgraf is also concerned about losing some pesticides over the next couple of years. Quintec, Admire, Clutch and some of the neonics will be lost.

“It’s not going to mean we have nothing to spray, but it does restrict us now,” he says. “There’s a couple of other things that are being looked at for 2019. It affects everybody. We’re all equally affected by it.”

Mainly a Honeycrisp grower, Davison notes about 35 acres of the family’s 50 apple acres are under five years old. The family grows Ambrosia, Gala and a range of other varieties. Changing the acres up is a trend Markgraf is seeing among growers. The overall apple acreage is flat but old blocks are coming out and new blocks are undergoing replanting.

Pricing on apples is anticipated to be slightly up from last year, but it was too early to tell at the Orchard & Vine deadline. According to Statistics Canada, BC had a little under 111,000 marketed tons of apples last year.

Fast and Furious Cherries

The cherry harvest came and went quickly again this year. Much like 2017, the heat moved growers from one variety to the next without much time for pausing, let alone a full stop, in between. The warm, early spring provided good pollination and allowed for fruit to grow to about a row size bigger than last year according to Markgraf who also noted yields were up slightly. Pricing is expected to be up slightly compared to last year, primarily due to increased fruit size.

“The end varieties kept coming on faster and faster and faster,” he says. “We thought we were going to have a long season and [the heat] probably shortened our season by about two weeks. We had average fruit [quality] to start, but then as we got into the mid and late season varieties, that quality picked up, so that firmness and sweetness picked up.”

Statistics Canada data noted last year’s sweet cherry harvest was 25,887 tons, significantly higher than previous years. This increase in yield is likely due to increased acreage coming at a cost to apple and pear acreages as well as previously non-orchard lands being planted.

Shelley Kempf, co-owner of Kempf Orchards notes her family U-pick operation had a good season that may have been slightly up in yield in certain varieties. The early hot spring made for a good start, but irrigation was required earlier to compensate for the hot summer and the humidity caused problems for later varieties in the heat. The smoke from wildfires didn’t impact growing, but it certainly caused challenges for workers in the orchards during the days of smoke-cover. She notes that weather is always the biggest challenge.

“A lot of people did lose their later varieties,” she says. “We had to leave about half our [later] crop in the trees. It had to do with watering. A very humid summer this year. Just created mildew in the fruit and once you’ve got it, there’s not much you can do.”

She noted certain sprays needed to be applied earlier, but it was hard to anticipate the grip the mildew had on later cherries. Kempf is seeing success with Crystalina, an early variety that has been popular with U-pick customers and may help move the orchard out of mildew pressure.

“Powdery mildew got some growers at the end,” agrees Markgraf. “As we move into late varieties – staccato and centennial and others, we are just going to have to be on top of powdery mildew control. It likes hot and dry, and that’s what we had.”

Spotted Wing Drosophila (SWD) reared its head of course, as is normal for later varieties of fruit. Kempf says growers used to spray once or twice a season for SWD but are now spraying upwards of weekly.

“It’s a big deal. It’s way worse than it ever was,” she says. “You have to be on top of it.”

She adds Kempf Orchards wasn’t hit too hard with SWD because they sprayed early and often. Markgraf found the same result with other growers. He says that while everyone worries about SWD and cherries it wasn’t as much of an issue this year since everyone was on top of it.

“It was a great season,” says Markgraf. “When you’ve got good size, the market likes it, they keep buying.”

Double Down on Soft Fruits

“It was a much smaller crop this season compared to other seasons,” says Markgraf of the soft fruit harvest. “Peaches were down, apricots were down, nectarines were down. Somewhere around 20 to 25 per cent.”

He describes it as a difficult season, believing yield was down primarily due to fruit size in peaches, nectarines and apricots, but notes there were no new diseases or pests in soft fruits and the acreage appears to be holding its base at this time.

“The market would probably accept more [soft fruits], so there is probably some room for more acreage, but it’s hard to get people to plant,” he says.

Plum and prune yields were down slightly this year from last year’s 1,624 tons reported by Statistics Canada. Peaches, with this year’s decline in yield, will probably dip below 5,500 tons for 2018. Nectarines had a rough year last year at just 787 tons and apricots were also down in 2017 at 875 tons. It is unlikely that 2018 numbers will be any better for soft fruit growers.

Pears up in size and quantity

The pear season is on par with apples with larger fruit than last year and Markgraf says there have also been higher yields than last season. However, Kevin Day of Day’s Century Growers notes his 40-acres of pear volume was up overall, along with tonnage, but only because younger trees were producing. His individual tree yield wasn’t up.

“The weather was very good for pollination and cell division early in the season, so size was up from last year,” he says.

The Anjou pears developed cork spot more than usual due to the longer hot, dry weather, but nothing of significant concern and irrigation was at standard levels for Day.

“Very clean fruit this year, good quality,” he notes. “Sugar content, taste is very, very good. The fruit moved a lot faster than normal, so there you had to pay attention to that. Even though we had three or four days of rain that basically stopped the harvest, we didn’t get into a drop situation. But the fruit was softer than normal. I would be surprised if it’s going to be any issue. I would think it’s going to be a benefit to the consumer that the Anjous are going to be riper at harvest. They matured very rapidly. Quicker than normal.”

Smoke wasn’t too much of an issue for Day until Bartlett picking, when it was a challenge.

“The majority of my volume was outside that [smoky] parameter, but yes, in August when picking the Barletts it was definitely an issue. It was irritating,” he says. “We managed to harvest about the same weight per person.”

Markgraf notes there were no real issues with pears this year, at least nothing that wasn’t manageable.

There are some new varieties of pears in different areas in the world, but as Day notes, there’s nothing really new in BC. Ontario is experimenting with a couple of varieties from Niagra, like Harrow Crisp, and Cold Snap that Day has planted and is trying out.

“Everybody’s trying to get something new with their pears,” he says. “There’s some proprietary varieties. As far as pear root stocks, there’s lots of work being done developing a winter-hardy dwarf root stock in the states so that it can be planted more like apples are; that can go to a more high-density planting and handle the temperature drops.”

There isn’t much fluctuation in pear acreage. With the lack of options for new varieties, there isn’t much reason to renovate fields, though growers like Day continue to expand, adding more blocks slowly.

He believes the pricing on pears will be slightly down this year compared to last year’s.

No Glut of Strawberries

Strawberry growers had a more challenging year than most fruit growers. David Mutz of Abbotsford’s Berry haven Farms, notes the yield of everbearing berries was down about 20 per cent on his farm when it came to processed berries due to a shorter peak.

“Normally we see a two to three week peak. This year it caught us off guard. It came about three to four days earlier than we expected… and it didn’t last as long as other years,” he says. “We went from super long to short in the blink of an eye.”

The glut of berries Mutz normally sees didn’t really materialize. He generally sends the excess to be processed but this year he only sent about half the usual amount.

James Bergen of Bergen Farms in Abbotsford found the same drop in yield, and one that extended into the later season for everbearing growers.

“The heat wave in August… that put the plants into heat stress, so they weren’t pushing as many flowers, so that caused a decline in late season yields,” he notes.

Mutz says the high heat caused a longer gap between the spring crop and the fall crop due to less flowering activity.

For diseases, powdery mildew was a big issue for growers, coming on strong and harder to fight. Mutz says it was worst in his newly planted field while the over-wintered fields weren’t as bad, yet was near extreme levels in some fields. Thrips and lagus were at typical levels and manageable, yet overall, berries were of good quality with firm fruit, but berry size was down slightly.

Overall pricing for strawberries is expected to be lower than last year. Mutz notes pricing was similar to last year, but was lower during the peak period for many growers. Competing with California fresh berries pushes pricing down according to Bergen, especially since the peak (while shorter) coincided with that of California’s.

Dead Cells Show up in Raspberries

Bergen is also the chair of the Raspberry Industry Development Council (RIDC) and noted this raspberries faced a new concern this year – single dead cells (druplets) found randomly in berries. According to an article in the RIDC newsletter, the symptoms seen in berries fall outside the “typical description for any known problems,” as reported by growers, packers, consultants and BC ministry experts. It was not a variety-specific issue.

“I didn’t see much of it in my fields,” Bergen says. “There’s lots of speculation about what caused it. Some people are saying because some raspberry fields are on the older side, maybe one thing led to another. But it’s all just speculation right now. It’s going to be monitored for next year.”

SWD was a problem late in the season, with fall berries taking the brunt of the pest and growers maintaining spray programs for control. Fortunately, there was nothing significant in the way of disease. Raspberry bushy dwarf continues to show as a concern, but the berries infected with it have been planted for at least seven years and show it will spread.

There was very little mold pressure this year even with the early rains. Bergen feels the rains helped get the size up over last year’s berries and notes they grew firmer as the season progressed. The majority of raspberries go to processing and while yields look like they will be higher than last year, pricing is expected to be lower.

“There is a push somewhat from local retailers to support local,” says Bergen. “But because raspberries are such a fragile berry and don’t have the shelf life, it’s a lot harder to get an in, in the retail market when there’s berries with a longer shelf life.”

The market is challenging for raspberry growers. With reports of some processors refusing berries in the US and uncertainty around markets, the RIDC is working to find solutions for issues like cheap import products.

The overall acreage of raspberries is being reduced and while some will go back into raspberries, other acres will be lost to different crops.

“There’s a few varieties I’m excited about, but they’re a few years away,” notes Bergen.

With no new options for planting, those growers considering replanting are limited in choices.

 “That’s what every grower is struggling with right now, is what to grow. There was a release five, six years ago, called Squamish,” he says. “Some growers are quite excited about it, others are wait and see.”

Growers also need an earlier, higher yielding variety for processing to avoid any overlap with blueberries. When blueberry harvest begins, both pickers and packing are lost to the blue fruit.

Bergen says raspberries do acclimatize somewhat to the high heat when it is a gradual rising and lingering heat. Sun damage occurs more often (depending upon the variety) when the heat spikes quickly. Harvest began in mid-June this year, which was somewhat earlier than average due to the hot spring. Freezing rain in February did cause damage to some canes, but Bergen notes it wasn’t overwhelming.

Overall, he felt it was a good season for growing raspberries. Unfortunately, the market isn’t providing the support growers need.

Another Wave of Blue

Blueberries will definitely have a high yield again this year with estimates from Jack Bates, chair of the BC Blueberry Council, of at least 155 million pounds, up about 20 million pounds. Bates notes other than last year’s low, this has been the average for recent previous years.

“Fresh is at 70 million and 85 million is frozen processed,” he says. “A good portion is IQF.”

He described the year as exceptional with the hot dry weather. The smoke from the Interior helped with keeping the sunburn down, though there was definitely some damage.

“It’s hell to work in,” Bates says of the smoke.

SWD was mostly kept in check with spraying every seven to 10 days, but there were pest spikes in the second week of August.

Pricing continues to be a challenge for growers with the blue glut of berries seen coming from BC, Washington and Oregon where berries ripen at approximately the same time.

“Of course there were pricing issues in the glut of a market,” he says. “The price bottomed out. It’s basically the same every year.”

Bates hopes the processed berries will end up with about the same pricing as last year and noted late season fresh berries usually receive a bit of a spike in pricing. Fruit size was average and quality was “pretty good all around,” although he notes some quality issues may have occurred at the end of the growing season.

No new varieties are on the horizon for at least five years although some growers are pulling their blueberries out and putting different varieties in.

A high note for BC’s blueberry growers is the June 23 to 27 International Blueberry Organization’s summit coming to Vancouver in 2019.

Great Growing Season for Cranberries

Cranberry harvests began on Sept. 19 this year with growers seeing good results to this point. New varieties are bringing yields up in good sized berries with nice colour.

“There’s 6,500 acres of cranberries in BC and I would say there’s about 40 acres in fresh fruit,” says Grant Keefer of Yellow Point Cranberries and board member with the BC Cranberry Growers Association. “There will be no expansion [in acreage], there is no room for more.”

However, with new varieties creating higher yields, any future room for more berries will be taken up by the larger production volumes.

A couple of new varieties Keefer is interested in are from Integrity Propagation from New Jersey. Still just numbered, Keefer notes 9-25 and 9-11 are both interesting.

“Overall, I think it was a pretty decent year for [pests],” he says. “No surprises definitely.”

The only issue seen by Brian Dewit of Riverside Cranberries was too much heat, but otherwise he felt it was a “pretty optimal” growing season. One grower he spoke to even reported a harvest of 45,000 pounds from one of his 10 acres.

“Every variety is different,” he says. “The results I’m getting back, very little rot, pretty good sized berries, colour is good.”

He notes the harvest would likely have begun even earlier had it not been for the smoke. He feels, depending upon the growing region, the season was about a week to 10 days behind, due in part to the smoke cover.

The biggest push from growers is Ocean Spray’s desire for fruit suitable to its Craisin products. The ideal size is ½ to ¾ inch in diameter and the company was short on “Craisin quality fruit” last year.

Pricing for cranberries is expected to be roughly the same as last year.

New Association for Table Grapes

Perhaps the biggest news in table grapes was the introduction of a new association – the Okanagan Table-Grape Growers Association (OTGA).

“We really do have better product than the other [table grape growers],” Alan Wikenheiser, owner of Caralyn Vineyards says of Association growers. “It’s always very concerning. We do get lumped in with some poor quality growers. We formed our own association, tried to tighten things up.”

Wikenheiser, owner of Caralyn Vineyards felt the season was up slightly over previous years, but added the last three years have been quite good. While his harvest of 12 acres of Coronation and Bath will generally yield about 10,000 boxes, he saw about 10,800 this year. The quality is what counts though and Wikenheiser believes this will be what makes this year stand out.

At D&M Djordjevich Vineyards in Kelowna, Mildred Djordjevich notes that her family’s grapes are sold at farmers markets, by farm gate or privately to others. She feels the six acres the family harvested this year were of good quality.

“I think it was lovely this year,” she says. “[Yield] was average, it was very nice, even though we had smoke all the time, but they did really nicely. They really got their sugar up. We’re happy with what we’ve achieved.”

The picking was a slight challenge for the Djordjevichs due to the rain and wetness, but it wasn’t an insurmountable challenge.

Wikenheiser notes there weren’t a lot of pests this year. Even the spotted wing drosophila (SWD) didn’t make much of an impact, and the smoke kept the heat down a bit to prevent the vines from shutting down, though it may have kept the sugars down very slightly and may have slowed ripening. While pricing hasn’t been determined for the table grapes to be sold and marketed through BC Tree Fruits, Wikenheiser feels pool pricing will be up over last year.

“It was a good year for us,” he says. “There’s a lot that goes into it, but it’s getting harder and harder. It really does test you. Food Safe is getting brutal. But it’s a good life. It’s very good.”

Potential table growers are also seeing it as a good life. While overall numbers of acres planted are down slightly, there is the potential for increases as new plantings are going in.

Fruit growing is not a job for the faint of heart. It’s long hours, sometimes uncertain paydays and unpredictable forces constantly pushing back. However, there are rewards, even when the season has been challenging and if there’s anything to celebrate (and there are many things) it’s the strength of community formed by farmers who support one another.

These individuals believe in sharing information, helping one another through the challenges and ensuring the industry continues to grow and thrive.