Isabel takes bite out of apples, tomato crops -
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Published on: 9/25/2003
Last Visited: 9/25/2003
Liz White, executive secretary of the Virginia State Horticulture Society in Winchester, said Wednesday the state's apple crop lost 25,000 trees and roughly 500,000 bushels of apples.
Virginia is the nation's sixth-largest apple producer and typically yields about 8 million bushels a year.The industry is centered in the Winchester area and northern Shenandoah Valley.
Normally, the apple harvest would have been well under way, but this year's crop was late and growers were probably only about one-quarter of the way through their harvest when the storms hit, White said.
Many smaller trees with shallower roots were destroyed.And when apples are blown to the ground, they are typically bruised and unsalvageable, she said.