It’s been a difficult year for many apple producers. Les Fermes Enderle SENC in Hemmingford suffered huge losses and things are not looking great. Nick Enderle explains, “It’s tallying to be the smallest crop of apples in the last 20 years. On May 18 we were hit with an unfortunate frost event [-4 to -6 degrees Celsius] when our trees were in full bloom. This is the most critical and sensitive time for apple trees to face a cold event.”
Depending on the area and elevation of the trees they were able to harvest some fruit, but Enderle shares that the quality and quantity are both very low this year. “Despite not having many apples, we were forced to continue the growing season, maintenance, and spraying even without apples,” he says. The heat this summer was not an issue for them, but the high quantity of rain led to them having to spray much more frequently than usual. “We spent more time and money spraying than any other regular season, fighting fungus and diseases out of the orchards. It’s been an all-around challenging season for us,” he says.
“We went from the all-time biggest crop last year (2022) to an all-time lowest crop this season.”
