If you like making caramel apples for Halloween, you may not be able to find Iowa-grown apples for the sticky treat. Iowa City area apple grower Chug Wilson says warm temperatures in March forced early blossoms that were then nipped by a later freeze.
"It was slim pickens this year…the crop was probably no more than 15 to 20 percent of last year’ crop," Wilson says. Wilson says the good news is that the trees react when there’s a small crop. He says with the heavy crop last year, the trees made fewer blossoms this year, and with the smaller amount of blossoms this year, the trees should make "massive" amounts of blossoms for the coming year.
Wilson says that would be good news for next year’s apple crop. He says, "Two-thousand and eight could be a real limb buster." Wilson has operated "Wilson’s Orchard" since the 1980’s.