Predicated 2019 east Michigan apple harvest dates

Questions about this information? Contact us. August 20, 2019

Updated from an original article written by Robert Tritten, Philip Schwallier and Amy Irish-Brown.

The predicted peak fresh market apple harvest dates for east Michigan are about three days behind normal.

Harvested apples in Michigan. Photo by Amy Irish-Brown, MSU Extension.

The predicted harvest dates are now available at all locations on the Michigan State University Enviroweather website. Once again, we have experienced a cool to cold late winter climate that delayed the development of spring buds. Most of the state experienced a late bloom except the very southeast part of Michigan. In general, the 2019 predicted harvest dates are roughly a week later than normal. East Michigan is only a few days behind normal.

As always, the weather seems to be unusual each year and 2019 was no different. It began with another very late spring. Most areas bloomed quite late except southeast Michigan areas. Cool to cold weather persisted well into June. In general, apple blocks have a mix of crop load, some light and some heavy areas, but mostly moderate crop loads. Blocks with light crop loads will mature three or four days sooner than the predicted harvest dates. Heavy crop loads will mature seven days later than the predicted dates. If hot, stressful weather occurs in August or September, apple maturity will be advanced.

The 2019 predicted harvest dates for the entire state for three varieties (McIntosh, Jonathan and Red Delicious) are listed in Table 1. This year, across the state we are about a week behind normal and for east Michigan about three days behind normal, depending on the variety. Table 2 lists this year’s predictions compared to normal and last year.

The normal east Michigan harvest dates for other varieties are listed in Table 3. I also added Zestar for the first time. Other varieties that I added to this table that are not on other author’s tables include Early Fuji, Cortland, CandyCrisp, Northern Spy, Crispin, Autumn Gala, EverCrisp and Winesap. Table 3 lists only one date for the entire east Michigan region, which is hard to do. You can adjust these predicted harvest dates based on your actual bloom dates or on the typical harvest dates at your farm. This year's predicted dates for other non-modeled varieties are a rough estimate based on the McIntosh, Jonathan and Red Delicious predicted dates.

ReTain application should be applied starting 30 days before harvest. Harvista can be applied three to seven days before harvest. Use Table 3 to time ReTain applications and adjust for varieties and locations.

Table 1. 2019 predicted peak harvest dates.
Full bloom date 2019					Predicted harvest date 2019
Station	McIntosh	Jons	Reds	McIntosh		Jons	Reds	Observer
SWMREC	May 11	May 13	May 14	Sept. 16		Sept. 30	Oct. 7	Bill Shane
Deerfield	May 8	May 9	May 10	Sept. 9		Sept. 25	Oct. 5	Bob Tritten
Romeo	May 13	May 14	May 15	Sept. 16		Oct. 1	Oct. 7	Bob Tritten
Peach Ridge	May 16	May 17	May 17	Sept. 20		Oct. 6	Oct. 11	Amy Irish-Brown
Hart	May 21	May 22	May 23	Sept. 26		Oct. 10	Oct. 17	Amy Irish-Brown
NWMHRS	May 22	May 23	May 23	Sept. 30		Oct. 11	Oct. 21	Nikki Rothwell

Table 2. 2019 predicted peak harvest dates compared to normal and last year.
Days behind normal				Days behind of last year
Station	McIntosh	Jons	Reds	McIntosh	Jons	Reds
SWMREC	9	7	9	8	6	6
Deerfield	1	3	3	4	3	7
Romeo	3	6	4	10	8	8
Peach Ridge	5	11	6	6	9	9
Hart	8	7	3	7	11	10
NWMHRS	8	4	4	10	9	12

Table 3. Normal and 2019 peak harvest dates for apple varieties for East Michigan
Variety	Normal date	2019 predicted date
Paula Red	Aug. 22	Aug. 25
Zestar	Aug. 22	Aug. 22
Gingergold	Aug. 23	Sept. 26
Gala	Sept. 8	Sept. 11
McIntosh	Sept. 13	Sept. 16
Early Fiji	Sept. 14	Sept. 17
Honeycrisp	Sept. 16	Sept. 20
Empire	Sept. 20	Sept. 24
Jonathan	Sept. 23	Sept. 27
Jonagold	Sept. 23	Sept. 27
Cortland	Sept. 25	Sept. 29
Golden Delicious	Sept. 29	Oct. 3
Red Delicious	Oct. 1	Oct. 5
CandyCrisp	Oct. 5	Oct. 10
Idared	Oct. 6	Oct. 11
Northern Spy	Oct. 8	Oct. 12
Crispin (Mutsu)	Oct. 9	Oct. 13
Rome	Oct. 11	Oct. 15
Autumn Gala	Oct. 17	Oct. 21
EverCrisp	Oct. 19	Oct. 23
Fuji	Oct. 22	Oct. 26
Braeburn	Oct. 23	Oct. 28
Winesap	Oct. 26	Oct. 30
Goldrush	Oct. 31	Nov. 4

This article was published by Michigan State University Extension. For more information, visit https://extension.msu.edu. To have a digest of information delivered straight to your email inbox, visit https://extension.msu.edu/newsletters. To contact an expert in your area, visit https://extension.msu.edu/experts, or call 888-MSUE4MI (888-678-3464).