Climate Change To Affect How And Where Fruit Is Grown

Fairfax - Darren Gray

Red apples could be a bit less red as temperatures rise due to climate change, Royal Galas are likely to suffer more sun damage, and some fruit growers are likely to rip out trees and opt for different varieties.
The looming impact of climate change on the fruit growing industry is detailed in a new report out of the University of Melbourne, which says climate change could affect what is grown and where in some Australian apple growing regions.
The report concentrates on science, but as climate change affects farmers and the fruit that they grow, a changing climate is likely to have some impact on the apples displayed on the shelves of Australian supermarkets in future years.
Northern Victoria's Goulburn Valley, one of the biggest apple-growing districts in Australia, faces a real threat from a rise in the number of hot days in January that could lead to "sun damage" on Royal Gala apples, the report warns.

Royal Gala apples

Royal Gala heat experiment. Photo: Supplied

Royal Gala is a popular variety picked from about January onwards in the Goulburn Valley. Its maturity and the early weeks of harvest coincide with the hottest weather of the Victorian summer, which comes in February and January.
The report author Rebecca Darbyshire said Goulburn Valley growers got a blast of hot weather in early 2009 that illustrated the severe potential consequences of sun damage.
"(For) early season varieties it is a significant risk and they've already experienced it, this is happening. Some of the growers lost huge amounts of their crop, somewhere between 30 and 70 per cent," she said.
"What we found is that that risk of damage is likely to definitely increase into the future. By 2030 on average about nine days in January will be crossing the threshold for damage for Royal Gala, that's nearly a third of the whole month," she said.
But Dr Darbyshire said strategies could be implemented to address the threat posed by higher temperatures, such as netting and "overhead sprinklers" to cool the apples.

Royal Gala apple orchard under netting. Photo: Supplied

Golden Delicious apples

A Golden Delicious apple. Photo: Rob Banks

The report said that growing regions in WA and one in south-east Queensland could face warmer winters beyond 2030 that would not deliver the chill needed for growing Golden Delicious apples.
But the researchers said other regions where Golden Delicious is grown such as the Yarra Valley east of Melbourne, Batlow in New South Wales and Huonville in Tasmania "face little risk and cropping of Golden Delicious is not expected to be limited in relation to winter chill".

Pink Lady apples
Dr Darbyshire and fellow researcher Sigfredo Fuentes also investigated the possible impact of climate change on flowering times for Pink Lady apples (also known as Cripps Pink apple).

Pink Lady apple trees in bloom. Photo: Supplied

The investigators found that "flowering will likely be delayed as climate change progresses".
"This means that flowering will occur in warmer temperatures which may have positive (increased final yields) and negative (lower firmness values and greater yellow background colour) impacts on production."

Pink Lady apples. Photo: Penny Stephens

Link

• University of Melbourne report