Eastern Iowa orchard owners anxious about near-record high temperatures

Most Eastern Iowans probably welcome an early spring warm-up.

But Iowa orchard owners who want a good crop of apples come fall are not as enthused about record high temperatures in mid-March. That's because abnormally warm weather now could put the crop at risk if temperatures drop to freezing or below in the coming weeks.

Chris Gensicke and his father Steve own and operate Allen's Orchard on North 10th Street in Marion. And as they wander the trees on the 5-acre site, they're seeing things they've never seen before at this time of year. Many of the 33 varieties of apple trees at the orchard are budding weeks earlier than normal.

As Chris Gensicke showed a tree in what's called the “silver tip” stage of budding, he commented “once we get to here, it's just a matter of time until it opens up and we start seeing green.”

Gensicke said apple trees at his family's orchard may show green leaves in a week, and the flowers than turn into the fruit a week following. That's at least a full month, if not more, ahead of a normal spring schedule. Flowering is a vulnerable time for the fruit trees.

“The worst case scenario is we have a week, two weeks like this and they blossom out. Then late April, early May, we have a freeze that destroys our entire crop,” Gensicke said.

Gensicke said temperatures at night are the key. After the trees put out flowers, if temperatures dip to freezing at night then the crop begins to suffer. If the low dips to 25 degrees at night a month from now orchard owners could lose everything.

And orchard owners are pretty powerless to prevent any damage.

“Iowa weather changes daily," Steve Gensicke said. "All we can do is go with what's given to us.”

Both Gensickes said if the warmer weather now stays around without a late April or May freeze, then the apples could ripen a month earlier than normal. That's obviously preferable to losing the entire year's crop. But it also presents some problems.

Allen's Orchard depends on what's sometimes called “agri-tainment” for about a third of the yearly sales. For the orchard, that means getting kids and parents out to wander through the groves and pick their own apples off the trees. The more people out picking, the more the orchard will sell in baked goods and cider.

About 1,000 school kids also come out every year, usually beginning in September, for field trips to see nature at work. If a good portion of the apples are ready to pick in August, the Gensickes wonder if the students will be out in the usual numbers when school finally starts.

Some apple varieties mature naturally in August, but might be ready this year in July. And the 4th of July was never really associated with any kind of fall harvest or apple festival.

But orchard owners say they can deal with an early crop if they must. What really worries them is what happened statewide in 2005. The trees budded right on schedule that year, but an extreme cold snap in early May wiped out 90 percent of the state's locally-grown apples.