After Discovery, it’s Aroma’s turn. This is followed by Cox Orange, Ingrid Marie and the other varieties. The harvest lasts until November. “The trees have a lot of apples, and if we were now to get some rain, prospects would be very good. Apples would definitely grow considerably, particularly in places with heavier soil. An apple with good root pressure, plenty of water and food can grow up to four millimetres per week, and that’s important when every millimetre counts.”
“In recent years, we planted a lot of new trees. This investment is now starting to bear fruit,” Henrik says. “Our goal is to get more Swedish apples in stores. Right now, we’re at about 30 per cent, and we would like to increase this to 40 or 45 per cent. Responses from trade and consumers are very positive. A lot of people prefer Swedish apples when they’re in stock. We do have to make sure to guarantee quality throughout the year.”
There were relatively few problems regarding damages from insects and moulds. More towards the north of the country, the apple fruit moth caused quite a bit of damage, but the commercial orchards in the south of Sweden weren’t affected by this.
Worries about the future
Near the former Finnish municipality of Pohja, the apple growers are less positive about the future. The dry summer could possibly also negatively affect next year’s harvest, according to Gustav Knape, an apple grower near Brödtorp, on Swedish website Svenska Yle. “The trees that had plenty of water have large apples this year. But the trees were exposed to a lot of stress. Because of that, they tried to stop evaporation.” Similar processes are sometimes used as production method as well, by pruning, for instance. “By pruning we try to determine where the tree starts flowering. But that’s a controlled type of stress,” Gustav says.
Gustav grows his apples on about five or six hectares. Per hectare, he can harvest about 20 tonnes of apples of different varieties. “We’re expecting a clearly better harvest than last year. We just have to wait and see what the shelf life will be in autumn,” he says. He mostly supplies his apples to local trade, and to that end, he’s working on the installation of a new sorting line.
