Heat wave putting Okanagan fruit crops at risk

The current heat wave is creating a high-stakes situation for Okanagan fruit crops.

Heat and sunlight can lead to sweeter fruit, but too much causes crop damage.

Orchardists are hoping to stay in that sweet spot, but there are already reports of damaged produce.

Orchardist Alan Gatzke described the heat damage to some of the apples on his Oyama orchard as “severe.”

The brown spots that are appearing mean some of the flesh of the apple has actually cooked in the heat, Gatzke explained.

Despite taking steps to try to protect his crops, he’s starting to see some damage from the heat wave.

“Our strawberries have already pretty much shut down in this heat, but we are hoping they will come back, when the weather becomes normal, with some new blooms and new fruit,” Gatzke said.

The heat damage is turning some of his valuable produce into a liability.

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With more hot days to come, it’s unclear how much of his fruit could be destroyed by the heat.

“It is hard to make a judgment as to what the total impact is, but for sure what becomes difficult is trying to sort the damaged cherries, or the partially damaged cherries and apples, out of the good ones,” Gatzke said.

The BC Fruit Growers Association says it hasn’t had reports of crop loss yet, but said the hot weather could exacerbate the industry’s labour shortage.

Other orchardists are hoping they can make it through the hot stretch without too much damage.

After inspecting apples on his family’s Vernon farm Tom Davison of Davison Orchards said the fruit size is still looking good.

“That’s one of the issues potentially with a long stretch of excessive heat is it can hurt fruit size,” Davison said.

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Davison is hoping nothing disrupts the farm’s water supply and the farm can keep its trees healthy through the hot weather.

“We are still optimistic quality is actually very high this year. Lots of sunshine and heat, within reason, is actually beneficial to fruit quality we will get higher sugar content in the fruit and great flavour from having the heat,” Davison said.

“As long as they are not under undue stress during this heat.”

How the trees fare through the next couple days of extremely hot weather could be a deciding factor for the fate of the crops.