DANVILLE, Ind. (WISH) – Fall is the season for apple cider and pumpkins.
However, lately, it hasn’t felt much like fall outside. In fact, Indianapolis set a daily high-temperature record each of the past three days.
That extremely warm weather affects both apples and pumpkins but in different ways.
“Hard to believe that it’s that hot,” Avon resident Cindy Simmons said of the unseasonably warm October weather.
The apples on the trees at Beasley’s Orchard feel the heat too.
“The effect this heat is having is it’s accelerating the ripening time for the fruit,” Beasley’s Orchard owner, Calvin Beasley said. “Each day is packing in what we call ‘growing degree days.’ So, the fruit is getting higher sugar content. It’s getting softer, it’s getting riper before we see that optimum level of color.”
Beasley showed News 8 several rows of Jonagold apple trees. The apples are supposed to have a rich, red hue. Instead, Beasley says upwards of half of his entire crop is a yellowish-green color with streaks of red. Beasley said with the heat, the apples ripen faster and fall from the trees.
“That’s not going to be good for the apple orchards that are trying to make some money,” Simmons said.
Several thousand dollars worth of apples that would usually be on the trees are instead on the ground.
“We were about probably 2-3 days away from having really, really ideal color on them,” Beasley said. “Then we started to see some fruit drop. We were lucky it wasn’t a tremendous amount of fruit and we knew we needed to get out there and pick them.”
It’s not all negative though. The warm weather gives the pumpkin patch a big boost.
“The plants get bigger, they set a few more pumpkins,” Beasley said. “The pumpkins get a little bit bigger than they would have normally. It basically allows us to have a crop that we didn’t think we were going to have when we re-planted them.”
Beasley said they still have an apple crop that he’s very happy with. He’s just ready for the heat to break.
(Photo by WISH-TV.)
