This crop's a bonzer

For Batlow apple growers, a big hailstorm in November wiped out perhaps half the crop, in what was until then looking to be a very good year.

Closer to home, Pialligo growers are much happier. Jonathan Banks, who grows organically at Pialligo and had virtually no apples last year, says this is an ''on year'' (like other fruit trees, apples produce a bigger crop every second year) and combined with the rain last summer, he's got more apples than he can sell.

''We have trees that haven't fruited for years that have a crop,'' he says. ''It's a beautiful crop. The cockatoos have taken half of it and we don't care, because it stops us having to ladder-pick.''

Rain has meant problems with apple scab and fungus, so Banks is turning damaged apples into juice and vinegar and selling them for cider. Jonathan apples don't get scab and are among the year's best, he says.

Owen Pidgeon, also an organic grower (and a Food and Wine columnist), has, like Banks, struggled with varieties susceptible to apple scab in the heavy rain, especially royal gala and pink lady.

But that's been the only problem in an otherwise very good year. Pidgeon expects to harvest up to 20 tonnes of apples (15 per cent for juicing because of skin defects), which would be one of the two best years ever for his orchard, he says. Last year, he got just four tonnes.

This year varieties resistant to apple scab cropped well. His Gravenstein trees produced a phenomenal 48kg, or 2½ cases, a tree. Nearly all the English apples are resistant to apple scab, along with bonza, Jonathan and topaz, he says.

Pidgeon, who is preparing for his annual apple day this weekend, dreams of the day he will get a case off every tree in his orchard at Hall, which would mean 50 to 60 tonnes in all.

Pears have been exceptionally heavy this year, perhaps 40kg to 50kg a tree for the main beurre bosc and packhams varieties, and Pidgeon's nashi pear trees have produced close to 25kg a tree.

Down the road from Banks in Pialligo, the Hauptmann family have been growing apples at their Beltana Orchard for more than 60 years. Bert Hauptmann says so heavy is the crop, the trees couldn't carry any more.

''We've had a good crop and no damage. We've managed to keep the coddling moth out with very few sprays, just one spray in the spring. We've had no black spot or mildew. We haven't had to irrigate. It's been a very good season,'' he says. Black spot can be a problem in the wet, but Beltana controls it with fungicides in spring.

''We've seen a few devastating hailstorms and late frosts over the years,'' he says. ''This year, fortunately, we haven't had any disasters.''

The same can't be said of Batlow, where growers faced big losses after the November hailstorm, one of the worst on record.

Ralph Wilson, of Wilgro Orchards, was lucky to miss the hailstorm, but says the Batlow district will probably pick about 30,000 tonnes of quality fruit this year, compared with 65,000 or so usually. The damaged fruit goes into juice.

Before the storm, it was set to be a good year, with good flowering after so many years of drought. The recent rain hasn't been a problem, with apples not affected by rain in the same way as stone fruit, grapes and cherries. Most growers in the region have been able to control the threat of fungal diseases, he says, and the rain has brought another benefit - very little coddling moth, with eggs washed off by the rain, and few problems with mites or woolly aphids, he says. ''Our orchard has been a lot cleaner than normal and that's because of the rain,'' Wilson says.

For some orchards, though, the hail damage was horrendous, he says, a worry considering the marginal viability of apple growing. Prices are subdued for growers, with customers unwilling to pay more and growers facing the threat of now-permitted imports from China and New Zealand.

Ian Cathels is one of Batlow's biggest growers and says he lost perhaps a quarter or a third of his crop to the hail. ''But the other two-thirds is getting exceptional yields because of one of the best growing seasons in ages,'' he says. ''It hasn't been too hot, there's been lots of good rain and regular rain. In the middle of picking, we had 16 inches [40cm] of rain, way too much, but it didn't affect them, and the apples are coming off very clean and a good size.''

Cathels says it's the first year he can remember where they are finishing the harvest with full dams. ''Only three or so years ago we were dishing the water out with teaspoons trying to ration it out,'' he says.

The annual Loriendale apple day is this Saturday from 1.30pm (barbecue from noon), selling fruit, apple pies, chutneys and jams, and other produce to raise money for projects backed by the North Belconnen Uniting Church in remote communities and overseas. Jonathan Banks and the Hauptmann family sell from their orchards in Pialligo, seven days a week at the Hauptmann's Beltana Grange, and Friday to Sunday at Banks's Pialligo Apples.