2018 ASHS Annual Conference

My research, teaching, and outreach program has been providing the nascent hard cider industry with research-based information on specialized hard cider apple cultivars, orchard management practices, and cider apple processing and fermentation.The volume of hard cider (fermented apple juice) sold in the U.S. increased nearly ten-fold over the last decade and is now estimated to be a $1.3B industry supporting 800 cider producers across the U.S.Industry revenue is projected to grow at an annual average rate of at least 1.2% over the next five years.

Hard cider apples contain quality attributes that provide important and noteworthy characteristics to the finished cider, including bitterness and astringency, sharpness, sweetness, and aromatics. Specialty hard cider apples are unique in that they may contain exceptionally high levels of one or more of these components. There is a clear opportunity for apple growers to increase the production of specialized cider apples. However, tree-fruit producers need sound, research-based information.

While there are dozens of European and American specialized hard cider cultivars that can be used to make cider, most do not perform as well as common culinary apples in commercial orchard situations. Specifically, many hard cider cultivars are not responsive to chemical fruit thinning, have an extremely biennial bearing habit, tend to be overly vegetative, and/or are highly susceptible to economically important apple diseases. Additionally, apples destined for hard cider production can be mechanically harvested and pruned and may require lower pesticide inputs than culinary apples because cosmetic defects and even some superficial damage are acceptable for fruit that will be processed soon after harvest.

To assist with identifying stakeholder needs, I collaborated with Dr. Carol Miles to survey hard cider producers at the national hard cider industry conference (Peck and Miles, 2015). We published the results from the first two years in the Journal of Extension, and continued the survey for two additional years. Averaged over the four surveyed years, we found that 88% of respondents indicated they need more research conducted on hard cider production by university scientists, 89% were willing to participate in research experiments in their orchard or cidery, and 55% were willing to fund research that targeted their needs.

Among the first hard cider research projects I conducted, I found that growers would need to receive a median return of $0.29 per pound and an average yield of 32,550 pounds per acre to justify planting a high-density hard cider apple orchard (Farris et al., 2013). For this project, I collaborated with agricultural economists to develop interactive and fully customizable partial and enterprise budget spreadsheets that can be downloaded for free. I have presented data from this project at more than 20 different meetings and workshops for commercial apple growers and cider makers. Currently, I am working with a Cornell Agribusiness Management graduate (Whit Knickerbocker) to update the budget spreadsheets and develop case studies for New York.

Next, I turned my attention to identifying the hard cider apples that are best suited for the Eastern U.S. by evaluating existing processing and culinary apples, establishing replicated cultivar trials, importing European hard cider cultivars, and conducting an exhaustive screening of accessions in the USDA-Plant Genetic Resource Unit’s Malusgermplasm collection. I coordinated a project that analyzed the chemical attributes of 20 culinary, processing, and ciderapple cultivars for their potential to make premium quality hard cider (Thompson-Witrick et al., 2014). I am currently in the third year of evaluating ten European hard cider apple cultivars planted in a replicated high-density orchard in Ithaca. In Spring 2018, I will be planting a replicated study of Spanish hard cider apple cultivars that have recently been released from USDA-APHIS quarantine. I also recently imported British hard cider cultivars, including17 new releasesfrom the Long Ashton Research Station that account for an estimated 20% of the cider apple acreage in the United Kingdom. The germplasm screening project is part of Nathan Wojtyna’s Master’s research project. In 2017, we phenotyped over 180 of these accessions, with additional evaluations planned for 2018. In conjunction with this project, Mr. Wojtyna has worked with Dr. Kenong Xu’s lab to identify fruit acidity genes in these accessions. Additionally, Dr. Gayle Volk (USDA-ARS) and I have fingerprinted a large number of hard cider cultivars using simple sequence repeat microsatellites.

My research also investigates the pre- and post-harvest factors that affect cider quality. In one recent study, I found that higher crop loads produced smaller, less acidic fruit that were slightly more mature (Peck et al., 2016). Additionally, in juice made from fruit from these treatments, the total polyphenol content did not differ at harvest, but, after fermentation, the medium crop load had 27% and the high crop load had 37% greater total polyphenol content than the low crop load. With funding from the New York apple industry, I have expanded the crop load research and am currently evaluating eight European hard cider cultivars grown at a grower-cooperator’s orchard. From 2015-2017, the Virginia Wine Board funded my Virginia Tech study on the impacts of apple harvest timing, and storage conditions and duration on hard cider quality. My lab is also investigating the effects that nitrogen fertilizers, sunlight, and temperature have on polyphenol development in cider apples (Ph.D. project for Adam Karl).

By collaborating on cost-of-production studies for growing hard cider apples and producing hard cider, evaluating the suitability of processing and culinary apple cultivars for hard cider production, and studying the ways in which pre-harvest orchard management can affect hard cider quality, I have begun to address the needs of this nascent industry along the complete supply chain. I have obtained more than $600,000 in funding support for my hard cider projects, including a 2014 USDA-NIFA-SCRI planning grant. My hard cider research has informed my additional faculty responsibilities. In 2017, I developed and co-taught an undergraduate hard cider course and laboratory which we offer on an annual basis. Over 60 students have taken this course over the past two years.