Tag Archives: Frederick County

Central Virginia Orchard & Tree Fruit Day Tour – July 15, 2014

Posted on by

We have a fantastic day tour of several Central Virginia orchards scheduled for Tuesday, July 15, 2014.  The tour will include high density (tall spindle) apple orchards, vineyards, retail markets, a packing operation, a cidery, a box lunch, and an evening meal on top of Carter Mountain overlooking Charlottesville, Virginia.  We will likely be traveling by coach from the Shenandoah Valley and there will be other transportation and carpooling options planned as the need dictates.  If you are interested in this day tour, please complete the registration on the attached brochure and send in the registration fee of $15.00/each by July 1, 2014.

Feel free to contact me for additional information or any clarifications.

We continue to thank our Tree Fruit Program Sponsors for making this educational tour possible.  Please see the attached flyer listing our many faithful industry partners.

Download the registration form: Central VA Tour Brochure <pdf>

Mark Sutphin

Associate Extension Agent | Agriculture and Natural Resources, Horticulture | Unit Coordinator (Frederick)

Virginia Cooperative Extension – Frederick County Office | 107 North Kent Street | Winchester, VA 22601

Phone – 540.665.5699 | Fax – 540.722.8380 | Cell – 540.398.8148 | Email – mark.sutphin@vt.edu | http://offices.ext.vt.edu/frederick/ | http://vacoopext.blogspot.com/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/VCE-Northern-Shenandoah-Valley-Agriculture-and-Natural-Resources/183932085102951

 

9:30 am Stop 1: Silver Creek Orchards (The Flippin Family) 

John & Ruth Saunders

5529 Crabtree Falls Highway, Tyro, VA

11:30 am Stop 2: Saunders Brothers (box/sandwich lunch)

Bennett Saunders & Family

2717 Tye Brook Highway, Piney River, VA

1:30 pm Stop 3: Crown Orchard Packing House* 

Chiles Family

5861 Piedmont Apple Ln., Covesville, VA

3:00 pm Stop 4: Albemarle Ciderworks 

Charlotte Shelton & Chuck Shelton

2545 Rural Ridge Ln., North Garden, VA

5:00 pm Stop 5: Carter Mountain Orchard (catered supper)

Chiles Family

1435 Carters Mountain Trail, Charlottesville, VA

The itinerary above is the proposed schedule and subject to change. 

* This is a GAP certified packing house and will require all visitors to abide by the following policies: guest sign-in, long pants must be worn, and no jewelry

Annual End-of-August Maturity Testing

Posted on by

This it the 28th year that researchers at the Alson H. Smith, Jr. AREC have recorded Golden Delicious and Red Delicious apple maturity data from orchards based in and around Winchester. Including 2013, data for Empire has been taken for twelve years and Gala for six years. In recent years, we have also added other commercially important cultivars to the analyses in order to generate long term averages. These data provide an interesting insight into the current season’s harvest, and can help growers make decisions on when to pick different blocks.

As discussed in a previous post, bloom date was about three weeks later than in 2012 and fairly close to the long-term averages. This should mean that harvest dates will be relatively “normal” or at least more similar to harvest dates in the late 1990’s through early 2000’s than they have been in the last several years.

As of this week, most growers in the Northern Shenandoah region are finishing up picking Ginger Golds, and have started picking Gala and Honeycrisp. Some growers in Central Virginia are finishing Gala and starting with Golden Delicious.

Many of the Golden Delicious blocks that we tested this week had very nice fruit finish, with minimal russet. Golden Delicious maturity was quite variable in the blocks that we tested, and it appears that some blocks will be ready to harvest within the next week, while others are probably 7-10 days away from being ready to harvest. The use of ReTain by some growers may explain some of this variability.

With the cool nights that we have experienced in August, red skinned cultivars have developed better than average color. However, be sure to check the starch and sugar levels before picking to be sure that the apples are mature enough to pick. Many Red Delicious apples that we tested this week had great color but very little starch degradation and soluble solids were only at 9-10 Brix.

Below are the data from this year’s end-of-August apple maturity sampling. In each year, the samples were taken around August 25 (August 26 this year) and consist of apples from the AREC and a few local growers. Thanks to Dave Carbaugh and Abby Kowalski for collecting and testing the fruit. Please refer to my post from last year if you need help interpreting the different maturity indices. You can also download a pdf of the 2013 Annual August Maturity Report.

Golden Delicious Maturity Report 1986-2013

 

  
Year

Background Color (1-4)*

Firmness (lbs)

Soluble Solids (ºBrix)

Starch-iodine Index (1-8)**

Ethylene (ppm)

Bloom Date
1986

2.2

19.5

12.7
1987

20.0

12.2
1988

18.6

11.0

1.5
1989

17.7

10.3

2.0
1990

18.0

10.5

1.6
1991

1.8

19.7

12.0

2.1
1992

1.8

20.1

12.0

1.6
1993

1.9

19.8

11.6

1.5
1994

2.3

19.8

12.0

1.7
1995

0.9

18.8

10.9

2.1
1996

2.9

19.6

11.2

2.9
1997

2.0

21.8

11.7

2.0
1998

2.5

19.2

12.2

2.1
1999

1.9

20.3

11.7

1.4
2000

1.8

17.5

11.9

2.5
2001

1.9

20.1

11.0

1.4
2002

2.2

21.2

11.4

2.1
2003

2.6

20.3

11.1

1.2
2004

2.3

18.2

12.3

2.0
2005

1.8

20.1

11.4

1.7
2006

1.9

18.5

12.4

1.8
2007

1.6

18.0

12.3

1.6
2008

2.1

18.3

12.9

1.6

22-23 Apr
2009

1.8

17.2

12.4

1.7

22-Apr
2010

1.6

18.6

12.9

1.4

13-Apr
2011

2.1

20.1

12.9

1.2

20-Apr
2012

2.5

18.5

13.0

1.3

0.00

2-Apr
2013

2.2

18.3

11.9

2.2

0.17

25-Apr
Mean

2.0

19.2

11.9

1.8

17-Apr
Max

2.9

21.8

13.0

2.9

25-Apr
Min

0.9

17.2

10.3

1.2

2-Apr
* 1 = green, 2 = light green, 3 = yellowish green, 4 = yellow.
** 1 = 100% starch, 5 = 60% starch, 8 = 0% starch.

Red Delicious Maturity Report 1986-2013
Year

Red Color (%)

Firmness (lbs)

Soluble Solids (ºBrix)

Starch-iodine Index (1-8)*

Ethylene (ppm)

Bloom Date

1986

72.0

18.8

11.2
1987

68.0

19.8

10.8
1988

54.0

18.4

10.0

1.6
1989

69.0

18.6

8.7

1.6
1990

73.0

18.1

8.9

1.5
1991

69.0

18.8

10.4

1.6
1992

76.0

20.8

10.2

1.3
1993

68.0

21.7

9.5

1.7
1994

68.0

19.7

9.5

1.9
1995

68.0

19.2

9.1

1.6
1996

62.5

19.3

8.9

2.0

25-Apr
1997

66.7

22.4

9.4

1.2

25-Apr
1998

81.9

19.3

9.9

2.5

15-Apr
1999

65.5

19.8

10.5

1.9

28-Apr
2000

87.4

16.2

9.6

2.3

11-Apr
2001

61.0

20.5

8.3

1.8

28-Apr
2002

60.2

21.4

9.4

2.1

22-Apr
2003

58.4

20.4

8.5

1.9

22-Apr
2004

88.2

16.7

10.0

2.3

20-Apr
2005

73.7

18.7

9.2

2.0

24-Apr
2006

63.8

18.7

10.7

2.0

16-Apr
2007

81.1

18.1

11.0

1.7

22-Apr
2008

86.6

18.1

9.4

2.0

22-Apr
2009

79.2

17.5

10.2

1.9

24-Apr
2010

65.9

18.2

11.5

1.7

8-Apr
2011

67.5

19.8

11.5

2.1

21-Apr
2012

92.1

18.2

11.9

1.8

0.03

29-30-Mar
2013

91.3

18.4

9.8

2.0

0.25

23-Apr
Mean

72.1

19.1

9.9

1.8

0.1

20-Apr
Max

92.1

22.4

11.9

2.5

0.3

28-Apr
Min

54.0

16.2

8.3

1.2

0.0

29-30-Mar
* 1 = 100% starch, 5 = 60% starch, 8 = 0% starch.

 

Gala Maturity Report 2008-2013

 

  
Year

Red Color (%)

Firmness (lbs)

Soluble Solids (ºBrix)

Starch-iodine Index (1-8)*

Ethylene (ppm)

Bloom Date

2008

93.5

18.3

13.6

5.6

21-Apr
2009

86.8

17.5

13.4

4.5

22-Apr
2010

78.0

16.3

14.9

6.4

9-Apr
2011

77.5

19.4

13.7

4.9

19-Apr
2012

91.1

18.0

13.2

4.1

7.13

29-30-Mar
2013

91.1

18.0

12.4

5.4

1.71

23-Apr
Mean

86.3

17.9

13.5

5.2

4.4

15-Apr
Max

93.5

19.4

14.9

6.4

7.1

23-Apr
Min

77.5

16.3

12.4

4.1

1.7

29-30-Mar
* 1 = 100% starch, 5 = 60% starch, 8 = 0% starch.

 

Empire Maturity Report 2002-2013

 

  
Year

Red Color (%)

Firmness (lbs)

Soluble Solids (ºBrix)

Starch-iodine Index (1-8)*

Ethylene (ppm)

Bloom Date
2002

42.0

25.3

10.4

2.1
2003

60.4

21.9

9.6

1.7
2004

78.1

17.2

10.9

2.2
2005

55.3

20.3

10.1

1.9
2006

46.0

19.7

10.7

2.1
2007

64.0

17.9

10.6

2.1
2008

66.3

18.2

11.0

2.1

21-Apr
2009

52.4

16.6

10.9

1.1

20-Apr
2010

44.3

18.1

10.7

1.8
2011

49.8

19.7

11.2

2.0
2012

85.9

19.2

12.5

1.7

0.01

29-Mar
2013

63.0

18.6

10.6

1.5

0.04

21-Apr
Mean

59.0

19.4

10.8

1.9

0.0

15-Apr
Max

85.9

25.3

12.5

2.2

0.0

21-Apr
Min

42.0

16.6

9.6

1.1

0.0

29-Mar
* 1 = 100% starch, 5 = 60% starch, 8 = 0% starch.

 

Maturity Report – Other Varieties 2011
Cultivar

Red Color (%)

Firmness (lbs)

Soluble Solids (ºBrix)

Starch-iodine Index (1-8)*
HoneyCrisp

66.2

15.8

13.0

5.1
Idared

17.0

19.9

11.1

1.2
* 1 = 100% starch, 5 = 60% starch, 8 = 0% starch.

Maturity Report – Other Varieties 2012

 

 
Cultivar

Red Color (%)

Firmness (lbs)

Soluble Solids (ºBrix)

Starch-iodine Index (1-8)*

Ethylene (ppm)

Bloom Date
Fuji Early Strain

65.5

16.7

14.7

4.1

0.03

5-Apr
Fuji Late Strain

26.0

20.9

12.1

2.1

0.03

5-Apr
Idared

36.7

17.0

12.3

1.3

0.00

2-Apr
Rome

39.8

22.5

12.3

1.5

.

12-Apr
York

41.8

22.4

10.7

1.0

0.00

3-Apr
* 1 = 100% starch, 5 = 60% starch, 8 = 0% starch.

Maturity Report – Other Varieties 2013

 

 
Cultivar (number of orchards tested)

Red Color (%)

Firmness (lbs)

Soluble Solids (ºBrix)

Starch-iodine Index (1-8)*

Ethylene (ppm)

Bloom Date
Cameo (1)

33.5

18.1

10.2

1.7

0.53

N/A
Fuji Early Strain (2)

80.3

16.3

13.6

4.3

1.51

25-Apr
Ginger Gold (2)

3.9**

16.0

12.8

3.5

0.00

24-Apr
Idared (6)

41.1

17.5

10.1

1.2

0.12

23-Apr
Jonagold (1)

35.5

18.7

11.8

2.8

0.00

23-Apr
Rome (1)

21.2

24.6

9.2

2

0.00

1-May
York (1)

53.5

24.4

9.4

1

1.20

25-Apr
* 1 = 100% starch, 5 = 60% starch, 8 = 0% starch.
** 1 = green, 2 = light green, 3 = yellowish green, 4 = yellow.

Grow Local, Buy Local: Networking Event

Posted on by

From Mark Sutphin, VCE agent, Frederick County. Please contact Mark for more details.

Dear Producers:

The Frederick County, Virginia Cooperative Extension Office is joining forces with Francie Kennedy, Project Coordinator for the Shenandoah Valley Farm-to-Table Project, to hold a networking event for producers and buyers (restaurant and institutional) in the Northern Shenandoah Valley. We have titled the event: GROW LOCAL, BUY LOCAL:
OPPORTUNITIES TO BUILD THE LOCAL FOOD ECONOMY IN THE NORTHERN SHENANDOAH VALLEY. Our goal is to foster relationships between local producers and buyers to grow the local foods movement in our area. It will be held at the George Washington Hotel on Monday, February 6th from 9am-4pm.

Please register by February 1st at www.growlocalbuylocal.eventbrite.com

There is a great lineup of speakers scheduled to highlight local food initiatives that are occurring in the Northern Shenandoah Valley (Counties of Clarke, Frederick, Page, Shenandoah, and Warren). We will enjoy a lunch prepared from food produced in the Shenandoah Valley.

Attached is a flyer with information. There are also more details posted at www.growlocalbuylocal.eventbrite.com, and you may contact Francie Kennedy directly at 540.432.6029 ext. 107. Feel free to contact me as well for assistance.

Please pass this information along to others you believe would be interested in attending. I look forward to seeing you there!

Mark Sutphin
Associate Extension Agent
Agriculture and Natural Resources, Horticulture Virginia Cooperative Extension Frederick County Office
107 North Kent Street
Winchester, VA 22601
Phone – 540.665.5699
Fax – 540.722.8380
mark.sutphin@vt.edu

For more details:

grow local winchester flyer