Growing Fuji apples teaches professor valuable lessons

Saturday, December 4, 2004 11:19 PM PST

By Associated Press

WENATCHEE -- Sunshine pierces high, thin clouds, but does little to warm the earth.

It's a cool 44 degrees, but calm. There is no breeze. A crew of 10 workers pick Fuji apples some five miles northwest of Quincy from trees on ground almost as flat and endless as the sky.

They are among the last pickers of the season. It's late. It's Nov. 9. Another day or two at most and they'll be done.

Most Fuji growers finished a week earlier. They rushed to avoid freezes like the ones that bit them the last two years.

Ata Yazdaniha, owner of Rezvan Orchard, chuckled while explaining growers didn't think they would have early freezes two years back to back, so they hurried this year and then there was no early freeze.

"Don't get fooled into picking early every year or you'll get them too green," he warned with a smile.

Yazdaniha, an Iranian-American with a doctorate in plant science, lost $75,000 worth of Fujis in the big freeze two years ago. But he picked late this year because of a heavy crop that took more time to selectively pick for maximum apple color, maturity and flavor.

The Fuji is a late variety. Growing them is tricky business, not only because one can get caught by freeze but because balancing water, fertilizer and thinning to get consistently moderate yields per tree is difficult, said Tim Smith, Washington State University Extension tree fruit specialist for Chelan, Douglas and Okanogan counties.

It's a task that's frustrated more than one grower, Smith said.

Consistently moderate yields produce the best quality fruit, Yazdaniha said. He's been growing Fujis for 14 years.

He didn't like the fact that his crop was 20 percent greater than he expected this year. It took him longer to pick, cost him more in labor and reduced his quality.

The bumper crop may have been caused by moderate temperatures last winter and spring and early bloom but no one really knows, he said.

"We have to learn a lot more about Fujis than we know," Yazdaniha said.

He does know Fujis cost more to grow and require more attention than other varieties. He also knows his Golden Delicious, on average, gives him a better return.

Over the years, he's learned to keep from overwatering or using too much nitrogen on Fujis, and he knows direction of ground slope, proper pruning and thinning are important. But more must be learned, he said, about how weather affects quality.

Yazdaniha grows Fujis, Goldens, Galas and apricots on 80 acres of orchard he named Rezvan, which means garden, paradise or heaven in his native Persian tongue.

He was a horticultural teaching assistant at the University of Tehran in Iran when he came to Utah State University in Logan, Utah, in 1960 for more schooling. A professor there, finding his last name difficult to pronounce, quickly dubbed him "Yaz," a nickname he still goes by.

After obtaining his doctorate at Utah State in 1967, Yazdaniha returned to Iran as a horticultural professor at the University of Rezaieh for 12 years. He was horticultural department chairman when he left with his family, on sabbatical to Washington State University, two months after the Shah of Iran fell from power in 1979. Fearing persecution if he were to return, Yazdaniha decided to stay in the United States.

"I love teaching and research but I love having a hand in practicing horticulture, too," he said.

He's found Fujis challenging.

The Fuji is a cross between Red Delicious and Ralls Janet developed in Japan in 1952. The late East Wenatchee orchardist Ralph Nakata and the late Grady Auvil, owner of Auvil Fruit Co., introduced it to Washington in the mid-1980s.

"Like anything new, it started out like a house afire. Scarcity is a great thing," Smith said. "There are all kinds of stories about how growers used to get $600 to $800 a bin for them when $200 is not bad for apples."

Growers covered Fujis with bags during growth to develop an iridescent reddish orange color, heightening their value for export to Taiwan and southeast Asia.

Prices dropped to more moderate levels as more and more Washington growers jumped into the Fuji game. Production sharply rose throughout the 1990s.

Washington production leveled off as China began growing Fujis, could do the labor-intensive bagging far cheaper and displaced Washington as the main southeast Asia supplier, Smith said.

Asians like large Fujis, but Americans like them smaller so Washington growers have turned to smaller, redder strains.

Despite the Chinese competition and difficulties of growing them here, Mike Robinson, an orchardist and orchard consultant who once worked for Auvil Fruit Co., said Washington growers can still make good money on them if they have the proper location, tree nutrition and know what they are doing.

"It's a tough apple to grow but if you have all the pieces in your favor it can be very profitable," he said, noting domestic consumption has been increasing.

Robinson said he's still planting Fujis.

But Yazdaniha said he thinks there are enough. He's not planting any. He said it's hard to know if growers should get into Fujis because the apple market is now so global.

He noted some Washington growers went broke on Fujis in the 1990s.

"My recommendation is don't get excited how much money someone else makes," he said, "because it all depends on their management, growing conditions and location."

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