Fresh News From Sun World, April 2007

   ...for grower-marketer members of the Sun World Fruit Alliance

FEATURES

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New California Season Looks Promising

-David Marguleas, Senior V.P., Licensing &  Corporate Development

In advance of the 2007 season, we share most grape and stonefruit producers’ optimism about the coming crop, quality and market conditions.

The early season (low chill) peach harvest in the Coachella Valley kicked off Sun World’s California season with strength. Optimal winter and spring weather conditions contributed to an outstanding April crop of Supechfifteen variety (AMBER CREST® brand) peaches. Early indications from the San Joaquin Valley suggest that follow-on peach cultivars Supechsix, Supecheight and Supechnine feature good size and flavor, with our early (BLACK GIANT® and BLACK DIAMOND® brand) plum lines and HONEYCOT® brand apricot series demonstrating great promise.

California’s grape crop, estimated at about 95 million (9 kg cartons) is shaping up to be one of the state’s largest but, with not a box yet to be harvested, it’s a bit early to get excited about such abundance. Coachella, where the U.S.’s first fruit is harvested, should see its first Perlette and Red Flame Seedless grapes the week of May 7, with promotable volumes a couple of weeks later in time for America’s Memorial Day – a benchmark holiday for summer fruit sales.

More than 1,000 producers, assorted nurseries and nearly two dozen marketer licensees now comprise the Sun World Fruit Alliance. As such, we’re anticipating a heavy flow of visitors to Bakersfield and Coachella during the upcoming six month period.

We look forward to hosting many of you here in California –during one of our three recommended windows (May 29-31, July 24-25 and/or Sept. 10-11) or at a time that better suits you.

 

Early Season News From the Grape Breeding Program

-Michael Striem, Table Grape Breeder

With increased efforts to develop a ‘high-quality-early-ripening’ grape, we have planted 11 new selections that will bear fruit in Coachella in a few weeks. An additional 21 early selections were planted last year, of which several will have some bunches this year for the first time. This spring we added six more selections to our Coachella trials. We have selections which ripen up to three to four weeks before Sugraone and Sugrathirteen, but much work needs to be done to establish their commercial viability. As the vines become older they will develop a better root system and we expect to see improved quality. Some of the selections are highly productive and 50% or more of the clusters were dropped to produce a reasonable crop on these young vines.

Under the management of Guy McGhie, we continue to carry out commercial trials on Sugrathirteen as well as more advances trials on Sugrasixteen and Sugrathirtytwo.  

The crossing season started with wet and cool weather. Under these conditions it has been very difficult to make useful crosses. Early in the morning the leaves and flower-clusters are too wet. Later in the day the wind is too strong carrying unwanted pollen from neighboring vines to the freshly emasculated flowers, yet through it all, we manage the elements and anticipate that we’ll soon have a good collection of 2007 seedlings to evaluate.

Winter/Spring Conditions in Europe

-Maurizio Ventura, Regional Licensing Manager, Europe

Winter conditions

This past winter in Europe was particularly mild, with day-time temperatures higher than average in growing areas of Spain and Italy.  High temperatures often reached 5-10°C above normal during the December-to-February period. Fortunately night-time temperatures have been relatively low during this time so that chilling requirements were satisfied for most stone fruit cultivars. Due to the mild winter however the 2007 stone fruit season is starting 15-20 days earlier than normal.

Spring conditions

Due to a lack of winter/spring rain and snow, forecasters have predicted the possibility of having drought conditions this summer because soil moisture reserves have not been recharged. This possibility was somewhat alleviated with a rainy period during the mid-to-end of March. Luckily, there has been no frost damage, but the slight temperature drop has caused fruit development to slow, and at the moment the season is trending only one week earlier than normal. In Italy, when the wet period began, the flowering of many stonefruit varieties (apricot, peach, cherry, and plum) was almost over. Due to that and because of warmer weather, fruit set has proceeded normally; and at the moment the season is defined as “average” and stone fruit quantity forecasts for this year are normal.

Table Grape Season

Table grape bud break started slightly earlier than normal, both in Italy and in Spain this spring and this could lead to an overlap of produce availability on the market, particularly for earlier varieties. Dormex was used by many growers to induce uniform bud break.  An increase in the use of plastic coverings for grapes should also be mentioned. In Europe, coverings are used mainly as a means to protect crops from bad weather, not to advance or delay harvest. In fact, in 2006, steady summer rainfalls caused large produce losses where vines were not covered. Additionally in the autumn, rains and low temperatures triggered several phytosanitary problems which, in turn, required such an increase of pesticide sprays as to exceed their allowed residue levels; and as a result, much of the product was not accepted by the market.

April Fruit Trial Reports Available on sunworldfruit.com

(click to enlarge)

Supechfifteen in Coachella

The low chill stone fruit season in the Coachella Valley is over but harvest  is beginning in the San Joaquin Valley. In Coachella Supechfifteen performed very well in spite of bud-kill caused by the January freeze that devastated the California citrus crop, and in spite of strong dust storms. Harvest was the latest we have ever had there due to cold weather but production, packout and size was outstanding.

Sun World held fruit trials on April 11th and April 26th. Highlights included 1. observing Supechthirteen and Supechfifteen harvest in Coachella; 2. Viewing the progress of low chill nectarine development, with the first commercial harvest of NE209 and Sunectwentyone in test plantings, as well as new cultivars on trial with naturally clean finish like the NE333; 3. Evaluating new low-acid low chill peaches under development, such as PE657 and PE497. Evaluation of early-season peaches, nectarines and apricots from the San Joaquin Valley.

April fruit trial reports are now posted on sunworldfruit.com along with past reports. Just go to the main page and click on 'fruit trials' at the top of the window.