'Ghost apples' left dangling on tree after Michigan ice storm
An ice storm that hit a Michigan orchard left mesmerizing "ghost apples" dangling from trees.
The ice formations spotted at a Kent County orchard are the same shape and size as regular apples. In photos taken Feb. 6 by Andrew Sietsema, they've even got a stem from the tree in the exact same place as an actual apple.
In an interview with AccuWeather, Sietsema explained that the ice had formed a sort of casing around an apple that hadn't been picked by the time the storm rolled through, and nature did the rest.
"I guess it was just cold enough that the ice covering the apple hadn't melted yet, but it was warm enough that the apple inside turned to complete mush (apples have a lower freezing point than water)," Sietsema wrote.
"When I pruned a tree, it would be shaken in the process. The mush would slip out of the bottom of the ghost apple. Most apples just fell off, ice and all, but quite a few would leave a cool ghost apple behind," Sietsema, a farm manager who studied horticulture at Michigan State University, told AccuWeather.
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