The Grounded Orchardist

Sun scorch is a normal part of orchard life sadly. Taking these off has been one of my seasonal jobs for years. I basically associate Discovery apples with sunburn and wasps because they amongst other early season apple are particularly susceptible.

People seem shocked when I talk about sunburn on apples, I was too when I first started orcharding. This year of course is no exception. It got to 38.5 degrees in the orchard last week after weeks of already hot weather.

The sunburn is caused by intense, consistent sunlight scorching the apple. Sometimes it’s intensified by a raindrop or dew drop acting like a magnifying glass alongside the sun. Its basically cooking it.

It’s not good after that, not nice to eat, no good for storage as it will rot from that point which will then spread to other fruit it touches. It also gives wasps an easy entry point, this makes thinning a bit more difficult because drunk wasps are no fun!

What I find interesting though is on each variety of apple the sunburn is completely different. I have no answer for that, it’s probably down to consistency/density of apple, the amount of sugars etc.

So what should you do? You could invest in shading, however this is unsightly and is an added expense. It’s highly unlikely the fruit will be sweet enough to eat, unless its later on in the season so add it to your compost. On the bright side this will allow all the vigour in the tree to go to the good fruit left on the tree. Keep an eye on susceptible varieties such as Discovery, George Cave and Bramley and thin out accordingly.