Apple growers around the Twin Cities are looking at a slightly later season, but a good one.

Carpenter Nature Center usually opens its Apple Shack on Labor Day weekend but announced it is aiming to open a week later, on Friday, Sept. 5. Other orchards are open for picking this weekend but report similar delays because of the cool, wet spring, a late bloom and a relatively mild summer.

“We’re about a week behind on everything,” said Laura Aamodt of Aamodt’s Apple Farm outside Stillwater, which opened in August for early varieties and has plenty of picked apples for sale in its barn, including Paula Reds, Dutchess and the very first Zestar.

The most popular local apple in recent years has been the Honeycrisp, a University of Minnesota breed that typically ripens in mid-September. Aamodt expects to start harvesting Honeycrisp around Sept. 13, though it depends on theweather. SweeTango, which is a hybrid of Zestar and Honeycrisp, is now ready at Aamodt’s and due at a number of other orchards in the next week.

Overall, the weather in 2014 has been decent for apples. The string of sub-zero temperatures in winter may have been hard on some Honeycrisp, said Charlie Johnson, owner of Whistling Well Farm in Hastings and president of theMinnesota Apple Growers Association.

“But the big, good news this year is that we didn’t have a late spring frost and, for the most part, we haven’t had any hail. Those two can be killers,” he said. “I think people are going to be really pleased when they get out to the orchards.”

Growers recommend checking websites or calling to see what varieties are available on a given day and whether the orchard sells only picked apples or also allows customers to pick their own. The Minnesota Department of Agriculture has a searchable database of farms local orchards at minnesotagrown.com.