U-Pick? Go soon. Michigan apples, peaches ahead of schedule

• Extreme weather conditions have resulted in unusually early apple and peach harvests
• Orchards are encouraging customers to visit now despite colder, fall-weather traditions 
• For some peach farmers, unpredictable weather led to lost crops

Michiganders who want to pick their own apples or buy fresh from farms may want to head to the orchard earlier than usual — because they’re ready now.

Extreme weather events — like a 70-degree day in February followed by a cold front and then record-high temperatures — have caused Michigan apple and peach trees to bud early, a problem for some farmers and customers.

Apples typically ready for harvest by mid-to-late September were ready two weeks ahead of schedule at some orchards. And on some peach farms, fluctuating temperatures killed crops or forced early harvests already done.

While this isn’t the first year that warming temperatures have led to an early harvest, this is “probably the earliest I’ve ever seen it,” said Scott Robertello, co-owner of Kapnick Orchards in Britton, about 30 miles south of Ann Arbor. 

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Kapnick offers “U-Pick,” where customers can walk through the orchard and pluck their own apples. While they were ripe by late August, the farm waited to open until this month because owners did not think customers would come so far ahead of more traditional fall weather. 

“People were just not ready for apples,” Robertello said. “Part of it is weather-related. It's just been 80 degrees. That does not inspire people to pick apples and drink cider. We have some people coming out, but not nearly the number that we normally would see at this time of the year.” 

The orchard is warning customers that it will have "a limited amount of apples to pick" this year because of frost and freeze events, which has meant less fruit on lower branches, closer to the ground.

U-Pick accounts for a small portion of sales at Kapnick Orchards. Since apples can be frozen and stored for up to six months, Robertello said they can still be sold, which limits the financial impact for the farm. 

“The people that it really impacts are people that want to do ‘pick your own’ apples, because in that case, they do need to understand that (apples are) early and come a little earlier than they normally would,” said Brian Phillips, owner of Phillips Orchards & Cider Mill in St. Johns. 

The mid-Michigan orchard has used social media and its website to encourage people to come pick apples earlier than usual, he said, in an attempt to make sure they’re not disappointed if they come in October and the selection isn’t as large. 

“It's just as much about the experience as it is the specific apple they're buying,” Phillips said. “A lot of times they come with small kids and it's kind of a family outing.” 

For some peach farmers, the unpredictable weather led to lost crops. 

“We did not have any peaches, they completely froze out,” said Dennis Ashton, owner of Ashton Orchards in Ortonville, an Oakland County village about 25 miles north of Pontiac. 

His peach trees started budding in April but could not survive the ensuing cold, he said. “They were in bloom, and then we had a couple of 20-degree (days) and it just killed them. It didn’t kill the trees, but it killed the flowers.” 

Harvest season for peaches is usually between mid-July and late September, but peaches bloomed about seven days earlier this year. 

“We still have customers calling up and saying, ‘Do you have peaches?’,” said Robertello, the co-owner of Kapnick Orchards in Britton. 

“We've been done for three weeks now, so some customers are missing out on their favorite fruits because the schedule is so different this season.”