Impact of the extreme summer heat – Apples

In this small corner of Herefordshire, bordering on both Gloucestershire and Worcestershire, conditions in the past have been ideal for apples with cool enough winters to provide dormancy and store up vigour, sunny spring times for flowering and pollination and moist summers with about 600mm of rainfall a year, critically half of it falling in July and August to nourish the fruits which largely consist of water, before drier spells in the Autumn, ideally over harvest.

Summer 2025 did have some heatwaves but the water table was high enough to ensure that the trees were able to cope with the heat, but 2026 as even the casual observer will have noticed, has been on an altogether different scale.

Since the beginning of May there has been no significant rainfall and this, accompanied by five official Heat Waves as well as months of consistently high temperatures, has taken a toll on every orchard. The fruit is very small as it has had so little moisture and the trees are stressed by lack of water and the record high temperatures. They respond by shedding fruit which has fallen off and much of it has been sun scorched and will rot. They also respond by beginning to drop leaves, the so called ” Early Autumn ” effect. The small hot apples also produce chemical changes, releasing Gibberillins which are a growth regulator in the cells which may well affect the crop for the following year .

Conditions have been very poor for any form of fruit production and very few orchards have any provision for irrigation as the crop is of relatively low value. Fruit production primarily depends on the basics of light levels and moisture so is very much at the mercy of the Climate Emergency. Farmers and growers have always had to be resilient and find ways to adapt, but the speed and severity of the recent changes are extremely difficult to cope with.

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In spite of the challenges, there will be plenty of apple events over the next two months around the county including: