PEACHES AND EARLY APPLES LIKE PINK LADIES AND GRANNY SMITHS
With overnight lows expected to fall to freezing or below until some rain blows in later this week, there is always concern this time of year for Henderson County’s budding multi-million dollar apple crop.
And local apple grower Kenny Barnwell tells WHKP News the apple buds are right now at the “silver tip” stage...Barnwel says they are just mow beginning to swell, with sap moving up into the buds...and they can take some pretty cold temperatures without too much damage.
But Tuesday night’s overnight low that fell into the upper teens in most of “apple country” probably damaged some of the early blooming varieties, says Barnwell...Pink Ladies and Granny Smiths in particular...but he adds the cold so far has not “taken a big bite out of the apple crop.”
Local peaches, he says, are a different story. “I’m afraid some peaches have been hurt pretty bad, but we’re still a week or two away from being able to see just how bad,” Barnwell says.
Local apples typically begin to bloom around April 15th. If temperatures warm up, Barnwell says apples will be blooming here in two weeks...but for sure, he says we’ll start to see some apple blooms in the next two or three weeks.
“We’ve got a good ‘fruit bud” this year so the potential is there to have good crop this year,” says Barnwell. He adds, cautiously, “We’ll just have to see what happens a little farther on down the road.”
By Tippy Creswell and Larry Freeman
