WOODBINE, Md. — “I love farming. You look around and you’re like, look at that beautiful fruit," said Lynn Moore the President of Larriland Farm.
The Howard County farm's been in the “pick your own” business since the 70s, giving them decades of experience on how to deal with unpredictable weather patterns.
"Overall it was kind of stressful," Moore says.
Like a bruised apple, the orchard has taken quite a weather hit over the last few months.
"We had a very wet May, so it was hard to get to the ground to get the crop planted," Moore explained.
Then in June, the complete opposite, dry.
“Then to top it all off, in August we had the hot spell where many days it was over 90 degrees," Moore told us during our visit to the farm. "It was just about getting the plant enough water to survive."
Fast forward to October, the apples survived yielding a fairly successful crop, but the pumpkins weren't so fortunate.
“There’s one fungal disease in the soil that’s just there," said Moore.
Usually it causes no major issues, but it's a different story after days of rainfall.
“That disease will come out of dormancy and start thriving. Hurricane Debby just took that whole field, filled it with water and the disease went crazy. I lost the pumpkin crop," said Moore.
And while a lot of factors uncontrollable factors are at play, researchers are finding ways to create more climate resistant apples.
“I initially started to breed for heat but I started breeding apples for warmer, weather and windier weather," said Dr. Chris Walsh, a researcher with The University of Maryland.
First step is checking on the hybrid seeds and how they hold up in greenhouses. Afterwards a series of tests.
The overall process takes about 12 years.
As result three patented varieties of apples are now growing on some Maryland farms.
“We get calls from all over the world because climate change is not just east coast," said Walsh.
There are also nurseries in Pennsylvania and Virginia.
"They are trialing the trees and hopefully one or more of those will write a contract within a year to begin propagating the trees so you would see them in an orchard fairly soon." said Walsh.
