Today's newsletter is the final issue for Volume 25 in the year 2025. In the last issue of the season I give a brief overview of the growing season in an annual report. The report is a summary of weather, tree health, crop load, pest pressures, and fruit quality that can be used for reference in the future. The drought this season is still fresh in everyone's mind and although it doesn't need to be reiterated, I do want to document it for our records. In this issue you'll also find irrigation resources and a list of upcoming conferences.

2025 Growing Season Summary

Degree Days

The growing degree day models indicate that this past season the base 5°C plant development and base 10°C insect development degree days were similar to the 5-year average and warmer than the 10-year average (Figure 1). Recent growing seasons have been some of the warmest on record.

Even though temperatures were near to the 5-year average, Jeff Franklin emphasized throughout the season a lot of variability from the cycling of above- and below-average temperatures. The fluctuations caused extra risk and unpredictability from extreme temperatures. We experienced an extra 3 days with extreme heat in excess of 30°C, compared to the 25-year average.

Figure 1: Heating degree day accumulations for plant (above 5°C) and insect (above 10°C) development from March 1 to Oct 31 for the past 17 seasons. Provided by Jeff Franklin (AAFC).

Approximately 1% more plant development heat units compared to the 5-year average, and 4% more compared to the 10-year average.
Approximately the same plant development heat units compared to 2024, and 2% more compared with 2023.
Approximately 1% less insect development heat units compared to the 5-year average, and 3% more compared to the 10-year average.

Precipitation

In combination with the warm season and extreme heat events, the weather was exceptionally dry. By the end of September and October, the Canadian Drought Monitor categorized the Annapolis Valley as being under exceptional drought conditions, which is the highest index on the drought intensity scale.

Table 1 shows the 25 driest years on record for Kentville. If we total the precipitation from April to October to represent the growing season, then the year 2025 is the 7th driest growing season on record. However, if we just look at the months of June to September during fruit growth, then the year 2025 was the driest fruit growing period on record. To further put this into perspective, we received 65% of seasonal precipitation (417 mm /646 mm) and 18% of fruit period precipitation (68 mm /374 mm). The extremeness of this event was unprecedented.

Table 1: The 25 driest years on record for the Kentville Research and Development Centre totalled from April to October (full season) and June to September (fruit growth). The current year 2025 is highlighted in yellow. Data provided by Jeff Franklin (AAFC).

Tree Health

The 2025 season is described as one of the most challenging growing years for the tree fruit industry in recent history due to the drought. The impact of the drought on tree health varied greatly between and within farms, depending on the water holding capacity of the soil and access to irrigation water. Sandy knolls running through orchard blocks created extra variability. Overall, no orchard was unaffected.

The drought caused tree stress and the impact was worsened by multi-day extreme heat events. Tree symptoms varied from curling leaves to wilting leaves, and in severe cases defoliation and tree collapse. Significant tree stress occurred in apples, pears, and stone fruit.

The tree collapse and weakening is variable throughout orchard blocks, resulting in an uneven influence on orchard productivity and lifespan. Trees with a heavy crop load were more water stressed than trees with a light or no crop load. New and young orchard plantings suffered from limited growth and tree collapse. Mature fruit trees have deep root systems and were more resilient and suffered the least.

Successive years of extreme weather events (winter injury, flooding, hurricane damage) in recent history are compounding stressors that weaken trees. Trees that are severely weakened by the drought will be susceptible to environmental pressures for years to come. Stressed trees are expected to attract insect borers that can compound the issue by attacking and compromising the trunk.

Crop Load

Abnormally cold and cloudy conditions during bloom made pollination success questionable. One or two good days of pollination weather seemed to be enough to set a crop. But the resulting fruit set was variable depending on which flowers were open when and whether it was an early or late variety. Fruit set was more predictable where honeybees were used. Bringing in bees and having pollinator varieties nearby serves as insurance for pollination success.

Decisions for chemical thinning were challenging because of the uncertainty associated with pollination. Early decisions were to either thin as normal, to reduce rates, or to use Sevin alone. In general, reassessing later in the thinning window revealed the need for chemical thinning because fruit set was better than expected. Gala, in particular, was very difficult to thin. The opportunity for chemical thinning was short, and unexpectedly hot and overcast weather led to a carbohydrate stress and a sizeable fruit drop. The weather was conducive to thinning activity from the thinning products.

Late in the season during the worsening drought, crop loads were reduced more than usual to try to encourage fruit sizing. Many farms dedicated extra labour hours and expenses to drought mitigation by removing fruit and supplying water. The labour support was diverted from other farm tasks that were not tended.

Review of Disease Pressure

Apple Scab

Above-average temperatures in early spring led to early maturing ascospores and consistently drizzly wetting periods produced infection events that occurred frequently at intervals of one week or less. Of the spores that were released during infection events, a heavy amount were capable of causing infection. This season a total of 10 primary infection events were recorded, which is similar to what has occurred in recent years. However, this year's infections were particularly long-lasting and presented frequent and heavy risk of infection. The event on May 19 was notable because it released 44% of the total spore load.

Table 1: Summary of apple scab primary infection periods recorded in Kentville in 2025, based on the Modified Mills Table and assuming a green tip date of April 20.

Powdery Mildew

The summertime dry, warm and humid weather conditions were conducive to powdery mildew. Newly expanding leaves on terminal shoots were frequently at risk of infection in midsummer. Susceptible varieties like Cortland and Honeycrisp that were unprotected had plenty of infections on new leaf tissue. Buds are infected this year and will overwinter to cause infection pressure next year.

Fire Blight

The first blossoms in the Valley opened very rapidly around May 13-15 with early varieties in full bloom and later varieties at king bloom. Development was at a standstill during cold weather and then above-average heat pushed the end of bloom by around June 2. In general, infections were possible during the main bloom period on May 16 and May 29 with further infection risk periods on late flowering trees. Infections were variable due to variable rain patterns and in many situations wetting requirement might not have always been realized to cause infection. However, wetting events including rainfall and dew during high EIP periods were conducive to extensive bacterial infection, unless antibiotic protection was applied. New fire blight infections developed where protection was not achieved.

Harvest and Fruit Quality

Apple fruit maturity was a few days advanced or similar to historically early harvest dates. The recent trend has been for early harvest in conjunction with more growing degree days. Due to the drought, the average apple fruit size was small, leading to a lower total volume of saleable fruit and excluding fruit from the market that failed to meet market grade. Pears and stone fruit were also small.

Colour development varied greatly within and between farms. In general, colour development was slower than last year. Where tree stress was prominent, colour failed to develop or orange/yellow tones developed on Honeycrisp. Without the diluting effect of water the soluble solids were much higher than usual.

Labour hours per bin were significantly higher than usual because 1) it takes longer to harvest small fruit, 2) marketable fruit were spatially distant, and 3) more decision-making was involved during picking to exclude undersized fruit.

Resources

Orchard Rodent Control

Rodents feed on tree bark in the fall and winter when other food supplies are scarce. The most common issue is when rodent feeding girdles the trunk of young trees at or near the ground surface or at the height of snow accumulation.

Recommendations:

A weed-free strip exposes mice to predators.
Note that this year, apples in the alleyways may be attractive food sources.
Be aware that using straw mulch can harbour mice.
If rodent activity is observed (mouse tunnels, droppings and chewed apples), consider the use of rodenticide. Bait stations manage the risk of poisoning other species and the control is long-lasting.
Bait stations placed on the perimeter of the orchard target mice moving into the orchard from bordering fields, fence lines or ditches. Pay particular attention to orchard blocks that neighbour corn and soybean fields.
Install tree guards, if feasible, on young trees. Remove after snow melt in spring to avoid fungal problems at the base of the trunks.

Irrigation Learning Resources

Perennia hopes to continue to build local capacity with irrigation, and in the meantime check out these great resources.

A Perennia webinar from 2021 with Ted Van der Gulik, author of the BC Trickle Irrigation Manual:

Events

WEBINAR January 12: Key Advances in Precision Crop Load Management

Monday Jan. 12, 2026
12:00 pm- 4 pm Eastern Standard Time

All North American growers are warmly invited to participate in a PACMAN (Precision Apple Crop Load Management) webinar featuring renowned scientists. After more than five years of scientific research and ground-truth evaluations, the latest PACMAN results will be presented.

Don’t miss this chance to learn about cutting-edge technologies and strategies that can help improve crop load management and orchard efficiency.

Registration Link:
https://cornell.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_f_zjuqCWQp2nM47F2CiM3Q#/registration

Agenda:
12:00-12:10am: Introduction to USDA-SCRI-PACMAN project - Terence Robinson, CU
12:10-12:30am: Optimum bud and fruit number of HC and Gala - Terence Robinson, CU
12:30-12:50am: Economics of thinning HC and Gala - Mauricio Guerra, CU
12:50-1:30pm: Fruit Growth Rate Model results - Todd Einhorn, MSU; Tom Kon, NCS
1:30-1:50pm: WA-38 crop load management - Stefano Musacchi, WSU
1:50-2:10pm: Pollen Tube Growth Model improvements - Greg Peck, CU
2:10-2:30pm: Engineering Results - Long He, PSU
2:30-3:00pm: GPS and Variable Rate Spraying - Brian Lawrence, Yu Jiang, CU
3:00-3:20pm: Extending the results of PCLM - Jon Clements, UMass
3:20-3:40pm: Discussion
3:40-4:00pm: Future SCRI proposal to continue PCLM - Yu Jiang and Terence Robinson, CU

What Has PACMAN Delivered for apple growers? Over the past several years, the USDA-SCRI PACMAN (Precision Apple Crop Load Management) project has brought together scientists, extension educators, growers, and ag-technology partners to address one of the most challenging aspects of apple production: managing crop load precisely to achieve consistent yields, good fruit size, high quality, and strong return bloom.

PACMAN has advanced both the science and on-farm practice of crop load management and helped move apple production towards a more data-driven, season-long approach.

PERENNIA WORKSHOP January 13: Nitrogen Management Workshop Series - Focus on Amendments

In the new year, Perennia will introduce a new factsheet on managing nitrogen supply in mature, high-density apple orchards in Nova Scotia as a much-needed update to our existing nutrient guide. I'll keep you posted!

In the meantime, are you interested in learning more about the nutritional breakdown of on-farm resources (ex. compost, manure)? Are you ready to tackle nitrogen calculations to understand the nutrients supplied by manure and compost?

Through funding from the On-Farm Climate Action Fund, Perennia Specialists have come together to offer a four-hour workshop with presentations focusing on broader use of manure and compost as nitrogen sources, and then later break out into commodity-specific working groups to focus on the use of these nitrogen amendments in your specific crops. We will dive into calculations and nitrogen credits, using the NS Soil Labs results from soil and amendment analyses as our base point. These sessions will be the same focus and structure as the 2024 Nutrient Management Workshops, just hosted in different locations.

Registration is required to secure your seat – spots are limited to maximize the impact of the break-out sessions. Please note that the tree fruit discussions are happening at only the event on January 13, 2026, 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM in Nova Scotia Community College Middleton – 295 Commercial St Middleton, NS.

Upcoming Conferences

Dec 9-11, 2025: Great Lakes EXPO, Grand Rapids, MI
Jan 27-29, 2026: NSFGA Annual Convention, Old Orchard Inn (registration open!)
Jan 27-29, 2026: Mid-Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable Convention, Hershey, PA
Feb 8-11, 2026: IFTA 2025 Annual Conference, Fresno, California
Feb 18-19, 2026: The Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Convention, Niagara Falls, ON

Perennia Food and Agriculture Corp.

Edited by Michelle Cortens, Tree Fruit Specialist

Pages

Orchard Outlook Newsletter Vol. 25, No 15

Friday, December 19, 2025

Table of Contents: