India: apple growers hopeful of a bumper crop If the cheerful faces of Himachal Pradesh apple growers and orchard owners are anything to go by, apple lovers across India are likely to find markets flooded with good quality fruit this year. Apple growers and orchard owners in Himachal Pradesh are expecting a bumper crop this year due to an extended winter season, which has brought a good amount of snow and rain during February and March. Anticipating a big earning this time, the apple...

The temperature dropped to 21 degrees Sunday morning and froze the sap of his delicate peach and apple buds, which rose early last month because of unseasonably warm weather. At least 90 percent of the county's apple harvest is feared lost because of the weekend freeze. Fruit prices shouldn't be affected at grocery stores, where imports from Chile, other countries, and states unaffected by the freeze will keep supplies stable, experts said. Local growers said it's the worst damage to the...

The arctic blast that came through the Tennessee Valley over the weekend left a trail of damage that will cost area growers and the local economy millions of dollars. Two successive mornings of below-freezing temperatures made it virtually impossible for area fruit growers to do anything but hope for the best, Morgan County extension agent Mike Reeves said. Easter freeze kills area fruit crop: Agent calls it 'a regional disaster'; only 'a few strawberries' survive. Reeves said the biggest...

With temperatures expected to drop into the mid to upper 20s Saturday, peaches and strawberries may be vulnerable to damage if left unprotected. Citrus growers have no way of protecting plants from the elements, Starr said. Strawberry growers can protect their plants by providing overhead irrigation. Strawberry plants are sprayed from above. Home gardeners can protect annuals by bringing them into the house, said Robbin Dorrier, master gardener. I hope the weather produces some thinning...

NEW ORLEANS Louisiana is celebrating the strawberry this weekend with a festival expected to draw thousands, but underpinning the revelry is the sad reality that the state's small but cherished strawberry farms are disappearing. Organizers of the annual strawberry festival in Ponchatoula, a town of 5,200 residents about 50 miles northwest of New Orleans, were expecting 250,000 people to attend the event, which began Friday and ends Sunday. Festival-goers not only get to indulge in...

LAKELAND - If you're keeping score on whether dumping Brazilian orange juice has harmed Florida growers, the home team is down 4-3 with a few innings of the game yet to play. The commission investigated orange juice supplies in Florida, both from domestic production and imports, from the 2001-02 through the 2004-05 seasons. Under the commission's rules, a tie breaks in favor of the complaining party - Florida citrus growers in this case - on the issue of damages. The trade body found...