The Apple Orchard

Four seasons for every apple

Trees need about 1,000 hours below 45 degrees Fahrenheit to produce fruit buds for the next season.
Pruning takes place while trees are resting, keeping them healthy and allowing sunlight to reach the leaves in spring.

By mid-March, orchards become an endless sea of blossom clusters.
Growers rent a billion additional bees to help resident bees pollinate the Pacific Northwest apple crop.
The King bloom opens 2 to 3 days before the side blooms, giving bees an opportunity to pollinate it first.
Once open, the side blooms are sprayed with a bee-friendly thinner to prevent pollination, resulting in one large, well-shaped apple instead of 5 little ones.
During cold snaps, growers use wind machines to prevent frost from settling and destroying the crop.

The use of sprays on the Pacific Northwest apple crop is lower than in any other commercial fruit region in America due to the unusually low insect population.
Growers use integrated pest management, a fancy term for letting good bugs eat the bad ones.
Apples are closely monitored during pre-harvest to ensure they are picked when their sugar, size, color, and crispness are just right.

Approximately 15 billion apples are picked by hand beginning mid-August through late November.
Washington State is the only growing region that mandates internal pressure (firmness) standards for marketed apples.
Apples are placed either in cold storage or controlled-atmosphere storage, where oxygen is removed, putting the apples to sleep for longer-term storage.
Smart Fresh® is now added to the atmosphere in many storage facilities to delay ripening. Smart Fresh® temporarily stops apples from producing ethylene and from responding to external sources of ethylene. The plant substance ethylene, is key to ripening, aging and eventual spoilage of many fruits and vegetables.