The area's apple harvest is earlier this year than last, but local growers expect a bumper crop with good coloring and great taste.

"We're about two weeks early this year," said David Diebold of Diebold Orchards at Benton. "We'll probably finish up by mid-to-late October. Last year we were still picking apples through the first week of November."

Diebold and orchard operators throughout Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois are finding larger, tastier fruit this year.

"The flavor this year is superb," said Diebold.

LaDonia Beggs agreed.

"We'll be picking through the third week of October," said Beggs. "The fruit this year has been good."

Beggs will conduct the annual Harvest Days Festival this weekend at Pioneer Pick Your Own in Jackson.

"We'll be making apple sauce, and we'll have our annual king and queen contest," she said. "This marks the 31st year for our festival."

Horticultural marketing specialists say apple growers can expect a good year.

"Growers are expected to harvest more than 800,000 bushels in Missouri," said Tammy Bruckerhoff, horticultural specialist with the Missouri Department of Agriculture. "This is the peak of the apple harvest, and this year promises a bumper crop."

The harvest, she said, is expected to be about the same as last year, which was a good year for Missouri apple growers, and much better than 1995 and 1996.

Missouri's leading apple varieties include golden and red delicious and Jonathan, but other varieties such as Fuji, empire and gala are gaining popularity, said Bruckerhoff.

The state's leading apple variety is the medium-sized Jonathan, she said.

Missouri is not among the largest apple-producing states, but apple orchards provide more than $6 million a year to the state's economy.

"The apples look good, and they seem to be running larger," said Tony Bratsch, an extension horticulture educator in Southern Illinois.

"We had some major cold weather in March," he said. "This helped in natural thinning of the crop. Then we had some extended cooler weather, and finally a hot dry spell that helped in the ripening process. In between, orchard operators did a great job of pruning," said Bratsch.

Illinois fruit growers have averaged about 53 million pounds of apples a year over the past decade, with about 80 millions pounds each of the past two years.

Although orchards can be found throughout Illinois, the state's major apple growers are in Union and Jackson counties in Southern Illinois. Southern Illinois orchards are as large as 400 acres, and apples from that region are shipped throughout the nation.

The U.S. is the leading fruit-producing country in the world, raising 10 percent of all the world's apples. Nationally, more than 2 billion bushels of apples a year are produced.