SweeTango Review

Our fieldman Tom reported to us that the SweeTango's starch level is at a 4 so we can pick them on Monday. In this picture you can see some of the russet we have this year. Last year we had significant russet that we attributed to the lime sulfur and fish oil that we applied for thinning. This year we did not apply it since we heard it's not needed for thinning and will cause russet. So why do we still have some russet? It's not as severe overall as last year but there is an occasional apple that is severely effected and lots of apples some.  

As you can see, there isn't a lot of canopy to protect the apples from the sun. We applied Surround (clay) on the SweeTangos to protect them from sunburn during the hot spell this past week. I'm curious how well it protected the fruit? We'll find out Monday.

Here are some second pick SweeTangos at the Mathison orchard near Ephrata. Yesterday we talked to the manager Scott Driscoll about the fruit finish. These were conventionally grown, and no russet control sprays were used. They use overhead sprinklers for cooling and have found at 70 degrees outside, the flesh temp of the apple can be at 104 degrees. At 104 degrees internal temp of the apple, they begin the cooling system. We didn't see any sunburn in the bins and Scott reported minimal sunburn in their first pick.
Did I tell you how wet and muddy their orchard was? It was really wet and muddy! I had borrowed Natalie's really cool white converse tennis shoes. I was going for form over function. Sorry Nat. I did my best to keep them white!
We did see a little russet so we asked Scott about it. He said last year they didn't have any. This year they have a little so he's attributing it to the moisture at bloom this year. Just certain parts of the block were effected so maybe those parts had more humidity?

The picker in this picture is using a picking bucket. Scott said they moved to the picking buckets instead of the bags to protect the apples from bumping during the picking process. They have seen that this variety bruises very easily and the bruises turn black in storage. There is just one knot on each of the ropes attached to the bucket. They observed that additional knots running through the apples when the fruit is unloaded causes additional bruising. 

Oh good you can't see my shoes!

Scott told us they want to keep the bin weight at 700 lbs to minimize bruising from weight pressure. This is achieved by filling up to the top of the small air slats on the sides of the bins. On another note, we were impressed by Safe Quality Foods signage at the orchard. Looks like this Mathison orchard will pass it's SQF audit. Nice sign that can do double duty by flipping it up so the other side is visible.

Check it out.

Impressive!
In addition to the terrific signage Bill just had to comment on the handy toilet trailers. He guessed that someone on staff is building the trailers for all of the Mathison acreage? We're going to inquire and if so maybe we could purchase some.
Hey, there is so much to blog about but it will have to wait until tomorrow!