IFTA 2012 Quebec -- more Day 1

Rounding out the morning of Day 1we stopped to see a new field being prepped for planting apple trees at D.M. Boileau Orchards, Inc., also in Havelock. One of several family members running the orchards and packing facility, Danny Boileau (left) told us how they want to plant 5,000 trees per year over the next five years, and with his agricultural/business education, realizes the importance of getting an intensive orchard off to a good start. Here, they are incorporating LOTS of manure and using green cover crops for good soil health and tilth before planting apples. But, growers are very conscious about phosphorous levels, in fact soil tests are mandatory and they are prohibited from applying too much P to protect water quality.

After lunch, we visited Tim Petch of Petch Orchards in Hemmingford. Tim's father, Bob Petch is fondly remembered as  IFTA Director from Quebec, and going back a long ways (1950's), Bob encouraged a shift to agri-tourism and Pick-Your-Own in the Hemmingford area. Tim (right) with his son Justin now orchard 85 acres, including this new planting of Kiku® (cv. 'Brak') Fuji (below). Tim is also experimenting with some Bi-axe trees to keep planting cost down while maintaining productivity. Once comprised primarily of McIntosh, the orchards are being replanted/expanded to include Honeycrisp, Ambrosia, and Fuji.

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IFTA 2012 Quebec - Day 1 cont.

After touring the Applesnax/Leahy Orchards processing plant -- they have a 70% market share in Canada for packaged applesauce, slices, and baby food, no pictures allowed -- we moved on to the M.J. Bourdeau Orchards in Havelock (about 35 miles southwest of Montreal, near the NY border), where Mario returned to the farm in 1990 which was then mostly standard and semi-dwarf apple trees. Now, with his son and wife, Mario farms 57 acres of apples in two location, and they have a large sugarbush. (A sugarbush are sugar maple trees tapped for sap to produce maple syrup.) We visited a 12 acre new dwarf planting, where standard trees were removed, and pearl millet was planted to help ameliorate replant disease. Above left, Paul Emile Yelle (our host and tour guide) discusses with Mario some of the finer points of training these Rogers McIntosh/B.9 to the Solaxe (below).

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IFTA 2012 Quebec - Day 1

Bonjour from Quebec, Canada. Well, a little apres the fact, so hello. But, I was on the IFTA Study Tour to the Province of Quebec, Canada on July 26-27, 2012. App. 180 of us (three busloads!) were treated to good French-Canadian hospitality, including lots of cider (yes, the alcoholic kind, vs. fresh or sweet cider), a classic maple sugar house supper, and much aménité. Beginning with this post, I will bring you image and brief commentaire from each visite with the Quebec producteur/verger (orchard). First stop, the IRDA Research Orchard in Saint-Bruno, just east of Montreal (skyline above left). I was anxious to see the overhead spray system developed by my colleague Vincent Philion (below left), who I know quite well from an annual pest management meeting in Vermont each fall. Philion explained the organic pest control strategy being deployed through the system, which included phopshite (or was it bicarbonate?) and sulfur (for scab control) and Surround (kaolin clay) for insect control. But he noted the inclusion of Surround resulted in poor scab control (below right), likely a by-product of interaction with the fungicides. Hmm...

Black cherry aphids

I let these black cherry aphids get a bit out of hand, but treated recently with Movento (Bayer). That should do an effective job of getting rid of them. Left uncontrolled, they will seriously contort and stunt growth of developing leaves/foliage. For more on black cherry aphid, see: http://jenny.tfrec.wsu.edu/opm/displaySpecies.php?pn=420

BMSB or not?

While visiting an orchard in Eastern Massachusetts earlier this week, I came across this stink bug sitting on the tip of a peach shoot.

I quickly grabbed it because it looked (initially) a lot like a brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB)! Ugh! I was not sure, however, so I consulted Dean Polk of Rutgers who confirmed it is only a (native) brown stink bug. Good! (Well, they still can cause fruit injury, so good relative to the fact it is not a BMSB.) So, here is a pict of a side-by-side comparison -- you can see the similarity, but the BMSB has more distinct white bands on the antennae. Keep an eye out there for stink bugs so we know if we are seeing more BMSB or not?

AppleTesters.net -- 'Redcort' Cortland: 26-September, 2011

AppleTesters.net - Golden Supreme, 21-September, 2011