TREE FRUIT
We are two thirds of the way through our season, with a lot of fruit left to pick. The two week delay at the start of the season has not yet caught up with us, which means many commodities will be able to stretch out a week or two longer depending on the weather. Our Holiday red plum will be available only from HMC Farms the beginning of September.
TABLE GRAPES
Bunchkins® Champagne grapes and Crimsons are in full production, with Thompsons starting this week. Niabell Concord grapes will start in a few short days. Autumn Royals should start in late August with Red Globes following close behind.
**COMING SOON HMC HOLIDAY PROPRIETARY RED PLUMS**
Full line of Products are currently available from HMC Farms.
TREE FRUIT
Peaches -
Zee Lady and Summer Flame 29
Nectarines -
Summer Bright and Summer Fire
White Peaches -
Snow Princess and Snow King
White Nectarines -
Fire Pearl and Red Pearl
Red Plums -
Fortune, Yummy Giant and Red Dawn
Black Plums -
Owen T and Friar
Specialty Plums -
King Midas
TABLE GRAPES
Red Grapes -
Flames – now available
Red King – estimated start date 8/9
Crimson – estimated start date 8/25
Sweet Scarlet – estimated start date 8/27
Scarlet Royal – estimated start date 8/29
Vintage – estimated start date 9/15
Black Grapes -
Summer Royal – now available
Autumn Royal –estimated start date 8/20
Green Grapes -
Thompsons – estimated start date 8/17
Specialty Grapes -
Champagne Grapes – now available
Niabells – estimated start date 8/23
Red and Black clamshells available
Green and Tri Color clamshells coming soon
We are now into the summer volumes and varieties. Sizes are down a bit from last year with peaches peaking on average at 48/50 and nectarines at 56’s.
Varieties currently available for tree fruit are:
Peaches – Earlirich, Country Sweet and Rich Lady
Nectarines – Diamond Bright and Spring Bright
White Peaches – Ivory Princess, Snow Jewel and Ice Princess
White Nectarines – Kay Pearl, Arctic Sweet and Spring Pearl
Black Plums – Black Splendor
Red Plums – Yummy Beaut and Yummy Rosa
We have started our first picks of the Bunchkins Champagne Grapes. These super sweet, ‘champagne’ grapes will be available from HMC Farms from June 21st until early September.
Watch a newly planted grape vine grow and develop through the month of May.
Watch one of our nectarines grow from a bud to a ripe piece of fruit.
Summer is here.
Below is the forecast for this month.
Click here for the Kingsburg, CA forecast for June.
We are now into great tasting, peak season varieties here at HMC Farms.
Current and upcoming varieties:
Peach - Zee Diamond, Spring Flame 22 and Crimson Lady
Nectarines - Red Roy and Rose Bright
White Peach - Spring Snow and Ivory Dutchess
White Nectarine - Early Pearl and Arctic Star
Black Plum - Flavorosa
Red Plum - Rubi Rosa
Table Grape Update
Upcoming table grape varieties have good form, shape and size.
Start looking forward to Champagne Grapes which should be
available out of Arizona starting June 18th.
On Saturday and Sunday the Fresno and Bakersfield greater areas saw record low HIGH TEMPERATURES. They were recorded as the coldest days for May 22nd and 23rd of all time. To add to the cold weather is the weekly occurrence of rain. This week there is 30% chance of rain on Wednesday and a 40% chance of rain on Thursday.
What does this mean for the fruit?
Cold temperatures hold fruit, which slows the growing process. A gradual increase in temperatures signal the tree and the fruit to jumpstart the growing process. If it gets too hot too quickly, the fruit may not reach its’ full size potential, possibly giving us some smaller fruit. Rain can cause cosmetic damage, but does not harm the interior of the product.
We will keep you updated as the weeks go on.
The champagne grape start date is currently set for June 15th. These tiny, super sweet black corinth berries will now be available in our Bunchkins® label all summer long (please see picture below).
Current and Upcoming Varieties:
Peach – Spring Flame 20 and Spring Flame 21
Nectarines – Zee Fire
White Peach – Spring Snow (first day of picking will be Thursday)
White Nectarine – Early Pearl (estimated start date June 5th)
Black Plum – Flavorosa (estimated start date June 5th)
Red Plum – Rubi Rosa (estimated start date June 10th)
Bunchkins® – Champagne grape (estimated start date June 15th)
Cold weather has put a hold on everything here in the valley. Historically our first peaches were picked the first week of May. This year, we are two weeks in and still no peaches.
This weekend the weather is set to shift from 65 to 85 degrees, which means that Monday should be a decent picking day. Until then, we sit and we wait.
There is some activity going on in the field. Thinning will continue on tree fruit into the beginning of next week. While table grapes have moved from shoot thinning to leaf thinning. We’re starting to plant new vineyards this week and next.
Crop Update
Pictures of what the fruit currently looks like out in our fields.
Peach - Spring Flame 20
Nectarine – Zee Fire
Tree Fruit
Below are variety pictures taken on 5/4/2010 of product at their current maturity, along with estimated start dates for early season tree fruit.
Peach
Spring Flame 20 – 5/15
Nectarine
Zee Fire – 5/24
White Peach
Spring Snow – 5/31
White Nectarine
Arctic Star – 6/5
Black Plum
Flavorosa – 6/1
Red Plum
Rubi Rosa – 6/8
Apricot
Poppycot – 5/10
Table Grapes
Below are pictures taken on 5/4/2010 of table grapes at their current maturity. Shoots should start blooming around 5/10.
Autumn Royal
Flame Seedless
Red Globe
Thompson
Heavy rain last week, but no hail was spotted. The forecast this week is for rain tonight and maybe tomorrow. Once the rain is gone there is a high pressure system moving in which means it should stay warm the next 10 to 12 days.
As of now, estimates for Plums and Nectarines are both off by one million boxes each from last year. Peaches, on the other hand, appear at this point in time to be up one million boxes from last year.
Early season varieties are coming off 2 to 3 days earlier than the year before, while mid season varieties are 3 to 5 days behind.
We are looking forward to starting early peaches the week of May 17th
