On May 11, strong convective weather occurred in many apple-producing areas in Gansu, and some areas experienced heavy rainfall and hail. In addition, apple-producing areas in Shandong have experienced multiple rounds of frosty weather in the past few days.
Judging from the recent feedback from many places, the price of apples will not be bad after this fall. Fruit farmers from various regions indicate that the number of flowers on the apple trees is much smaller than in previous years. In particular, the apple trees with large crowns have fewer flowers. In contrast, the short-branched trees are slightly better. It can be said that the production reduction of apples is a foregone conclusion this year. The reasons are as follows:
1. The weather last year had a far-reaching impact on the apple blossoms this year. The continuous high temperature in August last year was not conducive to the formation of flower buds. From September to October, it was raining almost every day. As a result, fruit farmers rarely fertilized again in autumn. During the period of flower bud differentiation, there was too much rain and insufficient nutrients, which directly hinders the formation of flower buds. In addition, apple trees had an unusually high number of flowers last year. There is a high probability that there will be fewer flowers this year.
2. As far as the wave of cooling and frost in May is concerned, heavy losses happened. Although local meteorological departments and relevant departments have taken emergency measures in a timely manner and fruit farmers have exhausted all kinds of anti-freeze defense measures, disasters still happened and the low-land areas suffered heavy losses because the temperature dropped too suddenly and the magnitude was too large. Yan'an, Shaanxi also experienced a limited impact on apple production. Although the impact of hail on the total apple-producing areas was limited, frequent hail disasters could cause fatal damage to orchards.
3. In the past two years, the price of apples has been sluggish, and the growers have lost money for planting apples. The old orchards are seriously aging, there has been a large-scale tree-cutting wave from last winter to spring due to factors such as rot disease. Tree digging is a common phenomenon in the producing areas of Shaanxi this year.
In 2022, a direct production decrease of about 30% is expected. It is also likely to be the year with the smallest apple production in recent years. On the whole, the price of apples in the new season of 2022 should be optimistic.