MAY 2025
CELEBRATING 146 YEARS AS CANADA’S PREMIER HORTICULTURAL PUBLICATION
THEGROWER.ORG
WAKE-UP CALL
Wind’s up and the weather is rising for Canadian apple growers
Are all the right parts healthy and green? Are the pistils and stamens intact? After a frost event in 2024, Brian Rideout (L) and his son Sam are checking on the viability of apple blossoms at Manitree Fruit Farms, Blenheim, Ontario. Photo by Jeff Tribe.
From coast to coast, Canadian apple growers are beaming with the prospect of favourable winds blowing through their orchards this summer. “I’m so optimistic right now about the 2025 season,” says Brian Rideout, Manitree Fruit Farms, Blenheim, Ontario, referring to 250 acres of apples, peaches, pears, tart and sweet cherries in his micro-climate north of Lake Erie. “We have a very nice crop on the farm. We had a real winter, and northern crops need a winter.” Like other Ontario apple growers, he’s talking not only about the weather but also the trade winds. A year ago, Rideout was worried about the high volume of Ontario apples coming on stream due to ongoing transition to high-density orchards. It takes about seven years to
recover planting costs, and many of his trees are now starting to produce apple quality and size at the high end of the pay grade. “In some varieties, we’re producing an extra 10 bins/acre which equals another 8,000 pounds.” The rise in Ontario’s quantity and quality is a happy contrast to what’s going on south of the border. “We are an importing nation for apples,” says Rideout, referring to the annual wave of apples arriving from Washington State each year. “But other countries and states have also invested in infrastructure. I went to the US Apple convention in Chicago in August 2024, realizing for the first time that states other than Washington – Ohio, North Carolina, Minnesota and Wisconsin – have grown their industries too. And each state is very protective of its sector.” Last year’s worry that imported apples would flood Canadian grocery stores has been shelved, at least for the
time being. The U.S. trade war launched in early March 2025 has upended not only trading patterns but consumer buying patterns. Canadian retailers are responding to a grassroots “buy local, buy Canadian movement” by stocking just one or two U.S. varieties while filling shelves with Canadian-grown apples. Stories abound from British Columbia to Nova Scotia that demand for local, controlled-atmosphere apples has increased significantly, depleting growers’ storage inventories much faster than previous years. “I personally think it’s all positive,” says Chris Hedges, chair of Ontario Apple Growers. “There has been much more rapid movement of apples. This year is reminding me of a COVID year.”
Greenhouse produce launches PG 6
CPMA state of industry PG 10
Irrigation & water management PG 16
Volume 75 Number 05 P.M. 40012319
@growernews
KAREN DAVIDSON
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