Crop Report: October 2024

Conventional harvest start date 6/14/24. Harvest end date 9/6/24.

Northern Peaches
The peach crop of 2024 in the North was challenging regarding the size of the fruit. From Loadel through Late Ross, we observed peaches lacking in size due to extreme, long heat during the month of June when the peaches were in critical growth stages. Another reason for the fruit being small is because we had a heavy set across most varieties. Despite the size challenge, the majority of the crop came out clean with minimal defects. Bruise and overripe did show up early in the season, but growers quickly adjusted once we got into the early varieties. Extra Early varieties garnered 11.6 Tons/Acre (TPA), Early Varieties 14.5 TPA, Late Varieties 17.0 TPA, and Extra Late varieties 16 TPA. The small fruit that was in all varieties hampered production efficiency for growers and the plant as well. Growers had to sort heavily with many small peaches being sorted out. Despite the size challenges, growers persevered and made sure they brought the cleanest fruit they could offer for our canneries. In preparation for next year, growers have already done their first hedging and topping of the trees and growers with non-bearing orchards are manually trimming the trees to promote a strong structure so that trees do not break if there is too much weight from the fruit. Some PCP
members/growers are pulling older orchards and replanting to maintain tonnage production. Growers and the North field team look forward to the next harvest.

Southern Conventional Peaches
In 2024, we experienced relentless heat that reached over 100 degrees for more than a 3-week period. This heat had an impact on the peaches that caused mixed maturity and size problems. The Extra Early varieties experienced some heat damage and sizing issues where the later varieties experienced a slowdown in ripening and sizing. The heat compromised the quality of the peaches to where the fruit didn’t hold up well after it was picked. We had growers who one-picked, two-picked and even three-picked because of the mixed maturity. Some growers went back and re-thinned orchards trying to size their fruit. Unfortunately, no
matter what we did in the field to try and combat the heat it didn’t translate
into better yields in the plant. Even though we had huge sort outs in the field, growers still managed to deliver a decent quality and quantity of fruit. The south delivered 43,936 net tons of peaches equating to an overall 18.4 tons per bearing acre. While we had plenty of challenges, there were a few successes as well. Growers who normally one-pick their orchards two-picked or even three-picked to deliver the best quality fruit. Growers who went back and re-thinned orchards were able to size fruit that wouldn’t have sized otherwise. On super-hot days we changed the way we shipped fruit to protect the quality of the fruit. We were able to convince more growers to pick their Ross and Late Ross on the firmer side to improve quality. Currently, some growers have started pruning their orchards getting ready for the next crop. Field staff have been working on picking up broken bins, collecting empty bins and cleaning up receiving stations.

Organic harvest start date 6/7/24. Harvest end date 9/2/24.

Organic Peaches
The organic peaches experienced a lot of the same issues the conventional peaches faced. Some of the organic blocks struggled with size more than usual. We were able to stay on top of the ripe fruit and two pick when necessary. We picked the Ross and Late Ross earlier than normal with a one pick to stay ahead of the heat and fruit maturity. We received 5,028 net tons of organic peaches. This is an 18.52 tons per bearing acre.

Harvest start date 7/26/24. Harvest end date 8/29/24.

Overall fruit quality was just okay. Small berry size was the main issue. With extended heat in June and July grapes just did not gain size like they typically do. The grape harvest went pretty smoothly, and we were able to keep our cold storage inventory low until the last two weeks of harvest. All growers reached their required tonnage to meet pack demand. We are hoping 2025 will bring larger berries as well as the desired tonnage to meet our pack plan.

Harvest start date 6/10/24. Harvest end date 6/28/24.

Overall fruit quality was good but throughout harvest we did see General defects a little higher than normal. We also had a windier than normal year in the Patterson/Westley area which caused the majority of defects. Growers embraced two picking their blocks which definitely helped with quality. Over ripeness, which typically is hard to avoid toward the end of harvest, never really got that bad this year. Still way too early to predict but apricots have been in an alternating cycle and with 2024 being on the shorter side, we could see a larger crop in 2025.