Some apple orchards experienced a loss in crop this season.

The adverse weather earlier this year still has lasting effects. Apple orchards like Bashista Orchards in Southampton, suffered a loss of crops due to a frost back in May. Tom Bashista, the fourth generation to work on this orchard, told us how his apples were affected.

Bashista says, “It was a long frost, for several hours and it actually froze solid a lot of the apples and all of those fell off within a week. So all the lower elevation tree in this orchard either have no fruit or deformed fruit.”

The problem with all of that cold air is it has nowhere to go once it settles at the bottom of the orchard. Some of the apples were frozen by the time Tom got to them in the morning, but it wasn’t just the frost this spring that’s put a damper on the season. Record rainfall this summer makes the growing process more difficult for the orchard.

“Yeah, the rain makes things challenging as far as keeping the crop protected from fungus we do get what’s called like a sooty blotch, so you end up having to wash the apples because there will be a little gray on it,” Bashista adds. While the frost we saw earlier this spring had quite the impact on some trees in the orchard, other trees are doing just fine.

Due to the lack of fruit at lower elevation, the orchard can’t offer apple picking to the public. Thankfully Bashista Orchards is still serving up tasty treats like apple cider donuts, cider slushies, and an assortment of pastries. They’ll still be offering up apples from now through November.

Source - https://www.wwlp.com