The fruit yield I picked today was almost even between the two systems (FWA vs. Tall Spindle Apple), app. 10.5 bushels of nice quality Golden's came out of each block of 15 trees. (Call it a 20 bushel bin out of all 30 trees.) If I extrapolate the yield at the current spacing, which is 2 ft. between trees X 12 ft. between rows, that is 24 square feet per tree times 30 trees equals 720 square feet of orchard equals 20 bushels. One acre (43,560 sq. ft.) divided by 720 sq. ft. equals app. 1/60 of an acre. Thus, 60 X 20 bushels equals an app. equivalent yield of 1,200 bushels per acre. Not bad. If I could do it on a whole acre... :-)
But is that really fair to the FWA? Well, tree height was limited there to about 10 ft. while the TSA was 12-13 ft. Thus TSA rows would need to be 12 ft. apart as above to maintain th 1:1 tree height/row height ratio recommended. But the FWA could be planted 10 ft. between rows therefore using only 20 sq. ft. per tree, and assuming the same yield per tree could be achieved, then that maths out to app. 1,450 bushels per acre. No hand pruning. And I picked the whole thing with only the assistance of a 2 ft. step-stool.
Is that the whole story? Well, see some of my other videos on this topic:
Can I do it again next year? We'll see. What do you think?
6 comments:
Great job Jon. I assume that we are not worrying too much about fireblight at the end of June/early July when hedging? I wouldn't want to rely on strep for too much longer with resistance taking hold in some areas.
Great job Jon. I assume we are not worrying too much about fireblight at the end of June/early July when hedging the fruiting wall. I wouldn't want to get too reliant on strep with resistance gaining traction.
I'd say you are right on Jon. I also think we should start taking particular attention to the bottom quarter of the trees over the next couple of years. I'd not want to see production move up higher at the expense of a loss of production on low hanging branches. I'm going to see if we have any trees not picked and try to determine some sort of ratio top vs bottom. mo
I'd say you're "spot on" Jon. Let's also watch where the fruit is on these two systems. Is the crop moving up the tree? Any idea what percent of the crop is in the top half vs bottom half? We should watch to see that production doesn't move up these next few years. Perhaps a baseline soon? Mo
I'd say you are right on Jon. I also think we should start taking particular attention to the bottom quarter of the trees over the next couple of years. I'd not want to see production move up higher at the expense of a loss of production on low hanging branches. I'm going to see if we have any trees not picked and try to determine some sort of ratio top vs bottom. mo
Great Article. Thanks for the info. Does anyone know where I can find a blank "2013 MA DoR IFTA-1" to fill out?
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