Three generations of juicy apples in the Wandiligong Valley

Dry and hot summer conditions have tested Victoria’s apple growers who are right in the thick of their annual harvest.

Nightingale Bros Alpine Apples’ Don Nightingale is in the thick of their apple harvest across their Wandiligong Valley orchards. Pictures: Zoe Phillips.

A dry and hot summer has tested Victoria’s apple growers as one of the state’s leading producers closes in on the finish line for this season’s harvest.

Nightingale Bros Alpine Apples, based at Wandiligong in Victoria’s North East, has completed about half its total fruit picking with its most popular variety, Pink Lady, to be harvested across the next three weeks.

Drier seasonal conditions this summer, plus warmer temperatures, have affected the Nightingale Bros’ apple sizing and colour quality so far across their apple varieties, which include the Pink Lady, Royal Gala, Granny Smith, Jazz, Envy, Fuji and both Red and Golden Delicious.

Nightingale Bros Alpine Apples’ Granny Smith apples which have been picked and are ready for distribution.

In the coming weeks Nightingale Bros are expecting to pick 6000 bins of Pink Lady apples, with the hope cooler April weather will help ensure their quality, before their winter pruning program begins.

For more than six decades the Nightingale family has grown apples in the Wandiligong Valley, expanding to chestnuts, hazelnuts and persimmons across three orchards in North East Victoria and one further north at Batlow in southern NSW.

In 1954 Keith Nightingale and his brother, Alan purchased their first orchard, with two more generations of the Nightingale now following in their apple farming footsteps.