HMC News – June 2025
Plumsicle™ season is right around the corner, and we couldn’t be more excited! Our Plumsicles are the epitome of why we love growing fruit. They are oh so sweet and bursting with flavor, an instant draw to any produce department. We began harvest this month and anticipate good volume running all the way through harvest. To learn more about Plumsicles and all the ways they can be enjoyed visit www.hmcplumsicle.com .
Crop Update: The “sizing” period on table grapes has officially begun. During this time period we irrigate more frequently and for longer periods of time, this allows the berries to undergo exponential cell growth and begin to size up. In the vineyards we continue to tip and thin bunches by hand where necessary. Overall, this year is requiring slightly more hand labor than the last couple of years. We seem to have gotten through last weekend’s heat wave with big impacts to the tree fruit or table grape crops. Harvest continues on tree fruit.
In our orchards we continue to harvest all commodities of both organic and conventional tree fruit. We are in peak season volume and flavor and are anxiously awaiting our first harvest of Plumsicles™ for the 2025 season. The weather continues to sneak into the triple digits here and there, but for the most part we have been fortunate with a June that was warm, but not excessively hot.
Crop Update: Veraison is beginning in our vineyards in our earliest varieties of table grapes. This stage makes the transition from growth to ripening. While berries will still continue to size as the weeks progress they will now also begin to change color and mature. During this phase the acidity will decrease while the natural sugars begin to accumulate.
Tree fruit harvest continues in full force on all commodities and has begun on our proprietary Plumsicles™. The quality has been great, and the weather forecast looks perfect for stone fruit. This has been an interesting harvest year, with first picks starting a few days ahead of “normal” and the second picks stretching out a day or two more than we typically see. The picks that follow are lining up with previous years. This is causing varieties to start early but finish at the same time as a typical season.
Crop Update: In the vineyards, we are getting close to wrapping up all of the pre-harvest preparation. These activities include hanging bunches, moving rake wire, and finally bunch tipping and thinning. Once tipping and thinning is complete, we will wait for the crop to mature and then harvest. Timing is still several days to a week ahead of last year for the start of our California season.
Veraison continues to progress in our early season varieties. Overall, we are trending toward an earlier start date this year on all varieties, with some of our earliest varieties pushing towards a week earlier than last year. Earlier this month, our newsletter mentioned needing canopy growth to protect the young berries from the heat. Now that the berries have matured, we cut the canopies open to encourage color and reduce disease pressure. The weather has been ideal recently, making us hopeful for good color and berry size on our California harvest.
Crop Update: Harvest continues on all commodities including our HMC Plumsicles.