A WA 38 apple grown near Quincy, Washington on Sept. 18, 2013. (TJ Mullinax/Good Fruit Grower)

Washington State University has scheduled two field tours where growers can see the growth habit of the Cosmic Crisp apple (WA 38 cultivar) and look at fruit quality at or near harvest. Both will take place about a week before anticipated harvest.

The first tour, on September 17, will begin at 10 a.m. at WSU’s Roza experimental farm in Prosser, which has second-leaf Cosmic Crisp growing on three production systems and two different rootstocks.

At about 11:30 a.m., the tour will move on to Aller Road (north off Hanks Road), Prosser, to see the variety in a Phase 3 planting of the apple breeding program. Seventh-leaf trees are trained to a single leader and second- and third-leaf grafts trained with two leaders.

The second tour will be on September 30, starting at 10 a.m. at a Phase 3 trial at Quincy, a quarter mile east of the White Trail Road and Highway 28 intersection on the north side of Highway 28.

This block has seventh-leaf trees and second- and third-leaf grafts managed in a tall-spindle system. At about 11:30 a.m., the tour will move to WSU’s Sunrise research orchard to see a Cosmic Crisp trial with three production systems and two rootstocks.