An apple tree yields a few bushels either way. Sell them to the packing house and you get wholesale; open the gate and let families pick and you get the u-pick price per pound — typically two to three times as much. The difference, times the pounds the tree carries, is the u-pick premium per tree, and it is the number that decides which blocks get opened to the public and which get picked by the crew.
A tree with 4 bushels at 42 lb each is 168 lb. At $1.75 u-pick against $0.60 wholesale the gap is $1.15, so $193.20 more per tree.
The example
Three blocks. Bushel weight differs by fruit — apples are about 42 lb, peaches 48 — so it stays a column, as do both prices.
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Block | Bushels/tree | Lb/bushel | U-pick $/lb | Wholesale $/lb | Lb/tree | Premium |
| 2 | Honeycrisp, block A | 4 | 42 | $1.75 | $0.60 | 168 | $193.20 |
| 3 | Peaches, east | 6 | 48 | $2.25 | $0.75 | 288 | $432.00 |
| 4 | Gala, young block | 2.5 | 40 | $1.50 | $0.50 | 100 | $100.00 |
The formula
Pounds per tree first — a number the crew can check against the bins — then the premium:
How it works
Two multiplications and a subtraction inside the parentheses:
B2*C2converts bushels to pounds. Orchards count in bushels; u-pick customers pay by the pound, so this is the bridge.D2-E2is the gap between what a pound earns at the gate and what it earns at the packing house. It is the whole reason u-pick exists.F2*(D2-E2)multiplies pounds by the gap. This is the premium per tree, before the costs of running u-pick.- Multiply by trees in the block for the block total, then subtract the parking, staff and liability costs of opening it to the public.
Customers do not pick clean. A 15 to 25 percent drop-and-bruise loss is normal in a u-pick block, and the honest premium multiplies the pounds by one minus that loss first (see the variation).
Try it: interactive demo
Enter bushels per tree, pounds per bushel, and the two prices per pound.
Variations
With picking loss
Multiply the pounds by one minus the loss rate before applying the gap.
Block total
Per-tree premium times trees in the block, less the fixed cost of opening the block for the season.
Pitfalls & errors
Wholesale price is the packout price, net of packing, grading and hauling. Use the check you actually received per pound, not the posted market price.
Many farms charge u-pick by the bag or the peck, not the pound. Convert the bag price to a per-pound number using the bag's average filled weight, and put that in the u-pick column.
Do not compare u-pick price to wholesale on the whole crop. The premium only applies to the pounds customers actually take home; whatever they leave on the tree still goes to the crew and the packing house.
Practice workbook
Frequently asked questions
Is the premium the profit?
What is a typical bushel weight?
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