Saving rare varieties – apple crisis caused by climate change with heat and frost

“The number of days with late night frost in the spring will decrease. But due to the expected earlier start of vegetation, the risk of frost damage will increase,” warn the authors of the study Christian Holler from the engineering firm of the same name Andreas Spornberger (Institute for Wine and Fruit Growing at the University of Natural Resources of Vienna). and Life Sciences) and Martin Engelmeier (Arge Streuobst): “In summer, the lack of water availability can become a problem.”

The experts’ particularly serious concern, which is also shared by ‘Noah’s Ark’ activist Bernd Kajtna in Schiltern (Lower Austria), is that some orchards and orchards are rooted in the so-called molasses zone.

The core of these geologically special circumstances is that the water-rich gravel subsoil does not necessarily dominate there. It is (ecologically) logical that even robust tribes there are increasingly struggling with drought. Lower elevations in particular will suffer from heat and drought stress. The scientists have carefully analyzed the climate data for three model regions: for the Amstetten Süd region in the Mostviertel in Lower Austria, for the Pöllauer Tal nature park on the border with the table fruit region of Eastern Styria and for the Lungau inland. The high valley of Alpine Salzburg, where orchards are currently grown, is hardly relevant.

Conclusion: Apple picking, which is healthy in so many ways (many important minerals, iron and little fat, see also graph above), is coming under increasing pressure due to climate change and will even intensify. The prospects for orchard cultivation are anything but rosy. Worse still: the climate crisis and changing conditions (plus three degrees Celsius) are calling into question the continuation of our current fruit cultivation.

The only bright spot: the cooler Alpine region may be a suitable future growing area. What the data brutally reveals: The climate, which is favorable for fruit growing, is shifting to significantly higher altitudes. Organic farmers are trying to defy the high apple mortality with old varieties that are adapted to the respective weather conditions.

More than 5,000 species of animals, plants and fungi find refuge in a typical orchard. The benefits of these special biotopes for all of us: pollination, hay, wood and honey, but also drinking water and protection against floods, but also carbon sequestration and improvement of the local climate. “Only if we limit global warming to below plus two degrees Celsius will there be a future for orchard cultivation in Austria. The existing potential of fruit types and varieties must be looked at, used and adapted to today’s needs. This is the only way fruit can continue to offer ecological taste diversity in the future,” warns Axel Grunt, activist of Noah’s Ark.

In the meantime, our apple farmers mainly had to contend with the erratic weather this year. After a very mild January, the warmest February and the hottest March in Austria’s 257-year measuring history, extreme cooling followed. Combined with the fact that vegetation arrived on average three weeks early, a blast of cold air in mid-April caused serious damage to fruit production. Stone fruit in particular was affected, such as apricots and cherries, but also pome fruit such as apples and pears.

“It could just be a taste”
“In total, the total damage caused by this year’s frost amounts to 44 million euros in fruit growing and twelve million euros in wine growing,” says hail insurance boss Dr. Kurt Weinberger. To ward off the threat of late frost on trees that were already in full bloom, groves were sprayed with a protective and ice-cold layer of water. Despite this frost irrigation, there were significant regional losses of up to 70 percent, according to the AMA. Grunt: “This could just be a taste!”