Wow, my third International Fruit Tree Association (IFTA) event in 2022. Annual Conference in Hershey, PA in February, Summer Tour in Washington in July, and now just back (as I start wring this anyways) from Italy Study Tour, November 11-19. And we covered a lot of ground -- Bologna, to Venice, to Bolzano, to Milan. Some orchard visits but a good dose of bus time, tourist stops, and trade shows. I posted a real time highlight from each orchard stop on the IFTA Facebook page, I will bounce off those with more detail here, including a bit of one tourist stop for your entertainment.
Starting off in Bologna, spent a day at EIMA International 22, the International Agriculture and Gardening Machinery Exhibition. Simply huge, mostly indoors, many themed buildings. I found a couple toys I wanted, of course I have no money, but it was fun looking. I should mention on arriving in Bologna we -- approximately 150 of us on the Study Tour -- were treated to a visit and dinner at FICO Eataly World. No, not misspelled, apparently Eataly's are a thing that originated in Italy (Eataly, Italy, get it)? Eataly's are in major USA cities too, including an online store. Who would've known?
Little boy in toy store?
While still in Bologna, in lieu of spending another day at EIMA, I chose to go with Greg Lang (IFTA Education Director) and a sub-group of circa 40 grower-attendees to (one of) the University of Bologna research farm(s). First stop with Assistant Professor Luigi “GiGi” Manfrini was to look at various peach multi-leader/variety training blocks. Hmmm, interesting, I have to say there were a lot of questions here, not always answered, but our host definitely expressed some frustration with tree establishment and getting those many-leaders (certainly called UFO in stone fruit?) going at uniform spacing and size. I got the impression it was a hands-on experiment. IMHO peaches will be a challenge growing anything other than some kind of 2-4-6 scaffold steep leader because I think they largely grow like "weeds."
GiGi in the multi-leader peach experiment
We also looked at some apples, first with Professor Luca Corelli Grappadelli, an experimental block of trees where the primary objective was disease control (scab and fire blight) by covering the orchard thus eliminating "wetness." Unsure how successful it was, but I did notice wooly apple aphid seems to love that protected environment. Corelli also showed us a rover/robot with autonomous navigation they are working on with an industry partner, purported to have multi-functionality (sensors, flail mowing, etc.) and there was some discussion with him and GiGi about a "smart specialized sustainable" orchard. And GiGi showed us a multi-leader (UFO or 'guyotte') apple system trial, it looked pretty good, I am thinking UFO looks better in apples than stone fruit? And, first detecting a theme here, the sustainable smart orchard and multi-leader trees, we/you will see more...
Luca Corelli Grappadelli in the covered apple orchard
GiGi shows us his nice multi-leader apple trees
OK, enough of Bologna, departed and on way to Venice we did a couple orchard stops. First a cherry variety/training system by Salvi Vivai nursery. It was interesting, and I could relate, but not sure what my take-home is/was? Makes me want to grow cherries again, but planting them very close together (SSA?) and on Gisela 3 or 5 rootstocks (depending on variety)? (Note to self: don't be a glutton for punishment, just-don't-do-it!)
Jacopa Diamanti shows us Salvi Vivia's cherry experiment
And then a significant planting of 'Rosy Glow' Pink Lady (Cripps Pink cv.) which had not been harvested yet. (Or it might have been first picked?) This was at the Mazzoni Group, a large multi-crop agriculture farm and fruit tree nursery. Again with some different training systems, bi-baum, guyotte(?), etc. Sorry for lacking detail here. I could not help wonder with the heavy crop load if there would be return bloom? Interestingly, fruit cracking was a significant issue, I assume because of the rather wet spring and early summer weather they seem to have? It was worse they said in tops of trees.
Mazzoni's Michele Gerin starts our tour of their large orchard, mostly Pink Lady and Fuji still on the trees
'Rosy Glow' Pink Lady experimental/production block covered with hail net
Crop load not as heavy as I thought, but I don't like that cracking!
In the afternoon, we visited C.I.V. - Consorzio Italiano Vivaisti, apple and strawberry breeders "we enhance nature" and nursery. Think CIVG 198 Modi®. Oh, what can I say? Focusing on "sweet and sustainable" varieties. I'd say half or more of the new apples they showed us were scab-resistant. We taste-tested a dozen or so new apple varieties in their portfolio, many of them numbered so not in orchard production yet. They ranged from "meh" to "pretty good." And got a look at some of their larger plantings for variety evaluation. We could look but not touch... 😎
CIV's Marzio Zaccarini leads us in apple variety tasting and tour of variety field evaluation orchard
So then, a free day in Venice. While in Venice, one must row to get around, seriously, there are no roads on the island of Venice. So how about a Cicchetto Row with Row Venice and these four jolly rowers, left to right -- Nan, our instructor, not unlike a Marine drill sargeant who was always on your case about your rowing technique, high five! 😅 -- and Marge, Molly, and Nicky. We all got the rowing down for a good 5 minutes straight (w/o being corrected by Nan!), rowing our way to some Prosecco, wine, and Cicchetto from a local bà caro...or two!
Nan and the Row Venice crew
Nicky, Molly, and Marge enjoy the Cicchetto
Departing Venice headed to Bolzano, we had a choice of going on a just apples (Jeff Cleveringa lead) or an apple-cherry tour (Greg Lang lead). Actually being a glutton for punishment, I chose the apple-cherry tour. Sorry, lacking many details here, but I will do my best. First stop was an experimental orchard site that (apparently) was a collaboration of Societa Cooperative Agricola and the Edmund Mach Foundation, which "promotes and carries out research, scientific experiments, education and training activities as well as providing technical assistance and extension services to companies." We got a talk about apple production practices in the Trento region from Tommaso Pantezzi, Centro Trasferimento Tecnologico, Fondazione Edmund Mach – Instituto Agrario San Michele all’Adige, and Nicola Andreatti, from Fondazione Edmund Mach. (It might, however, be the grower whose orchard we were in according to Greg Lang?) Also, we saw MORE multi-leader 'guyotte' style apple trees!
Tomasso Pantezzi and Nicola Andretti inform on apple production practices in Trento region including here a producting multi-leader block
For the cherry stop, up the road a ways, we were (after a long hike uphill) hosted by Angela Gottardell, Centro Trasferimento Tecnologico, Fondazione Edmund Mach – Instituto Agrario San Michele all’Adige in a cherry systems trial. The usual suspects, spindle, bi-axis, KGB (Kym Green Bush), and SSA (super slender axe). Looked like SSA and bi-axis were outperforming (in terms of cumulative production) the KGB and spindle. Would have been very interesting to see these trees pre-harvest, hint, maybe a summer tour to Italy is called for?
Angela Gottardell hosted and explained results at a stop in a cherry systems researchrch block
Last orchard stop before landing in Bozano was the Laimburg Research Centre. After an introduction by Dr. Walter Guerra head of the Institute for Fruit Growing and Viticulture, three research orchard block vists stood out. First, the Laimburg Integrated Digital Orchard, LIDO for short. Not to be confused with LIDAR, LIDO is an outdoor orchard 'laboratory' focusing on "the latest, state-of-the-art technology available on the market." Just planted with 'Rosy Glow' Pink Lady trained as 'guyotrees' the orchard was equipped with all sorts of sensors communicating over a long range low power wireless network. Also an overhead, fixed spraying set up for pest control. Checked all my boxes. Next a robotic harvester was a big hit with the group, however, it was in a test stage demo mode, yup, it picked apples. That's all I can say. Far more interesting to me was the training system demo by Dr. Christian Andergassen, fruit physiologist at Laimburg. There he was comparing apple yield and quality of Fuji and Pink Lady apples grown to traditional (for Italy) tall-spindle vs. various multi-leader approaches, including 'bi-baum' and 'guyotree.' Bottom line through the early production years? Fruit quality and yield was superior in the many-leader 'guyotree' system. He pointed out, however, that it depends on variety, Fuji being more vigorous and being less suitable to many leaders than Pink Lady. I think anyways...
LIDO, the Laimburg Integrated Digital Orchard, an outdoor laboratory
Dr. Christian Andergassen in his Laimburg multi-leader apple experiment
So, we finally made it to Interpoma 2022, the apple trade show. Words can't quite describe, suffice it to say it is THE International trade show about all things apple and pear, but of course with a focus on what's going on Italy-centric. I should do a word cloud about Interpoma. Wait, maybe I will! Followed by a few picts from the venue, Fiere Bolzano...
What could go wrong? Everything!
The apple variety "garden" at Interpoma
Lunch at Interpoma with my orchard friends from India, Vikram and Kunaal. Thanks guys!
Apple variety booths are a staple at Interpoma and quite flashy!
The "GuyoTree." Do they come like that?
Lots of equipment, platforms rule. N. Blossi is a local favorite?
I do want to thank IFTA (of course), Onward Travel (Molly, Kat, and Barbara), Greg Lang (IFTA Education Director), Jeff Cleveringa (IFTA President) for putting this altogether and (mostly) pulling it off without a hitch. 150 are a lot to herd and keep happy. Highly recommended if you have the opportunity to go on a future IFTA International Study Tour led by Onward Travel, wherever you go? (Hint: Norway, South Africa?) And thanks to Jim Krupa for putting up with me as his roommate for eight nights!
Not complete, but getting there. Corporate investment in Washington apple orchards I mean. Back from International Fruit Tree Association summer tour, July 17-20, 2022. Starting out with a day spent in the Pasco/Eltopia/Moses Lake area and ending up with a day in/near Quincy. I skipped out on the final day cherry or pear tour up near Wenatchee as I had some personal business to take care of up in the Brewster area with Honeybear Brands/Pazazz apples and at Lone Point Cellars. OK, back to the IFTA tour with a few take-aways before I get to some of the orchard stop highlights.
Yes, corporate/private investments are taking over what were family orchards, and/or already consolidated orchard "ranches." The investment game is huge now, with orchards summarily being removed and replanted by these outside investors, lots of money, and it remains to be seen how it will all play out in the long run. Water rights play into acquisition decisions as water is like gold out there. (Although it's copious if you got the rights.) No doubt the nature of the Washington apple industry has changed in recent years big time.
The metal Auvil-style V-trellis remains popular, largely because it is the most productive per acre. But it presents some labor and automation challenges still.
The WA-38 'Cosmic Crisp' thing has been a bit of a bust, ultimate outcome still TBD. But there are up to 20 million (or as "few" as 10 million depending on who you talk to?) trees in the ground, representing a significant piece of the WA apple production pie when it all comes into production. There are production issues, however, mostly shy bearing and some quality issues. Tree training practices are debatable and prices for Cosmic Crisp do not make up for the shortcomings so far. Unlike the also troublesome Honeycrisp but at least the the price is better there.
The apple crop is off, maybe 110 million bushels vs. a more 'normal' 125? A cold spring including up to a foot of snow in April in places was suggested as one culprit, but last summer's extreme heat in June may have hindered fruit bud development too, a double "whammy?" Honeycrisp blocks were all light, except some I saw up in Brewster. Let's not even talk about the dismal cherry harvest, although again it was better up 'North.'
OK, here's a brief summary of the individual tour stops, beginning with Day 1...
In Pasco at Hayden Orchard, grower of organic apples and cherries, we looked at a cherry rootstock grower trial, the darfing cherry rootstocks being from Michigan State University (Amy Iezzoni). Cass, Clare, Clinton, Crawford, and Lake (named after Michigan counties) rootstocks. Not really sure what they are looking for other than an alternative to Mazzard that might be a better fit on this V-trellis? Some talk of the new Coral Champagne cherry which they really like.
Denny Hayden, Hayden Orchard in his V-trellis harvested cherry block
Still in Pasco, at Douglas Fruit Orchard, WA-38 apple marketed as 'Cosmic Crisp' (CC) was the center of attention. A young (3rd-leaf, 4th-leaf?), lightly cropped planting of WA-38 on four different rootstocks -- M.9-337, B.10, B.9, and G.11 -- looked OK to me, although there was some blind wood in his V-trellis and trees were kind of wayward 'lanky?' Apparently that is part of the training problem dealing with WA-38, it is tip-bearing, click pruning might be the solution? It's also been shy-bearing, not heavy-setting and per acre production is lacking so far. The blind wood may have been on purpose as it looked like branches were being trained to the V-trellis wires keeping the windows "clean." Apparently sunburn and fire blight are also issues with CC. I am not sure we saw another CC planting on the rest of the tour, but I undersand there are some good CC blocks where trees have indeed reached the top wire. I did see a lot of 'Enterprise' growing characteristics in these trees, one of CC's parents. It's literally still a (up to) 20 million tree learning experiment, that is "what is the the best way to deal with CC?"
Garrett Henry at Douglas Fruit Orchard discusses pros and cons of WA-38
Young V-trellis WA-38 at Douglas Fruit Orchard. Note lanky tree bottoms and blind wood.
After a real tasty taco truck lunch in their new tree storage at Cameron Nursery in Eltopia, we had a quick tour of the field with Todd Cameron. I will only point out that we saw a lot of rootstocks that were destined to be grafted with WA-38, but alas, were not because of lack of demand. Todd has also grubbed out 3/4 of his CC budwood seedling trees. Enough said? But I can't help myself, already over-planted? 😉
No WA-38 to be found here at Cameron, just rootstocks growing. Well, it was suppose to be WA-38!
Leaving Cameron Nursery, and after a bit of a wayward bus ride, we arrived (eventually) just down the road at Columbia Reach Chiawana Orchards where all things orchard tech awaited us. First an introduction to the "Smart Orchard" Project, a collaboration of the Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission, Washington and Oregon State Univerisities, and Innov8.ag to "sensorize" the orchard. Sensorize meaing various sensors in the trees, in the soil, and in the air - weather; soil mapping, chemistry, and water; plant growth and stress. Lots of data with analytics and artificial intelligence to bring about better (smarter?) orchard management decisions? I was a little befuddled because I did not see it all coming together yet. And something that looked like a medieval torture device measuring just one apple's miniscule growth (and loss of growth?) spurts? Maybe they had such multiple devices? And maybe it is all in the name of science and investigation? OK, I will buy it, but some of it seemed excess. Then, Innov8 Ag showed off their ATV's equipped with many kinds of cameras and LIDAR and GPS and on-board computers. (What happens when something breaks?) It all works eventually I suppose, and mapping using data is no doubt a nearly mature technology and I could see the benefits of those colored yield (among other things) maps. Visualization and artificial intelligence are hot topics these days. But how much does it cost? I think that is what most were thinking. Looks like a no-brainer maybe for these larger corporate orchards, but I hope the technology can be adapted for smaller growers with scaled-down equipment and cost? In fact I/we (the PACMAN team) have been working with Farm Vision Technologies using a hand-held unit that provides similar functionality on a smaller scale and have been impressed so far.
Steve Mantle of Innov8 Ag talks about the "smart orchard" project, which uses many sensors collect data from the soil, from the trees, and from the air (weather). Including a device that measures fruit growth continually in very small units, which apparently can be a tell-tale sign of stress when the growth is interpreted properly. Feed me? Water me?
Decked-out Green Atlas Cartographer, part of the smart orchard project. Drives up and down orchard rows pretty fast and takes pictures of flowers and fruits that can then be fed to artificial intelligence to produce maps that assist management decsions. Sounds good. How much $$$?
Done with the "smart' orchard we were off to a pizza supper hosted by Automated Ag (home of the Bandits) in Moses Lake. I had another dinner date so I missed it, but not so our fearless IFTA Education Director Dr. Greg Lang who made sure he had a good choice of pizzas!
Wow, look at those pizza toppings! says Dr. Greg Lang at dinner hosted by Automated Ag
OK, that was all Day 1 (Monday, July 18). Day 2 (Tuesday, July 19) we were up in the Wenatchee-Quincy area. First stop for my bus was RJK Farms where a rather animated Richard Karstetter -- along with his two sons (who were much quieter) -- talked about family dynamics and farm transition, along with some irrigation technology and other automation advances to make work life more efficient and engaging for the next generation. Unfortunately, I thought their Honeycrisp crop was a bit lacking, but we have already been there, most likely adverse weather related.
Richard Karstetter at RJK Farms. He had a lot to say, believe me! Interesting guy...
Next stop for Bus 2 was McDougall & Sons Orchard. A shade cloth/hail protectant retractable netting was the highlight of the stop and was demonstrated by the McDougall & Sons team. If left in place pre-harvest, the shade cloth can hinder red color development, hence the need for it's retractability. McDougall & Sons is a vertically integrated grower/packer/ shipper in the Wenatchee/Quincy area with 4,000 acres of apples, pears, and cherries in the ground. Yikes!
Retractable (but non-retracted) protective netting over a Honeycrisp block at McDougall & Sons. Believe these were planted 2 X 12 feet, and may be in an organic transition. But they will go back to conventional in a snap if the organic market sours. Note it's a V-trellis but no metal, just wood...
After a BBQ pork sandwich lunch and a quick tour of the Starr Ranch Growers pack house (it was amazing, and home of Juici apples) we arrived at an AgriMACS, Inc. managed Honeycrisp block in Quincy where we enjoyed some real shade while the AgriMACS staff and Dr. Lee Kalscits from WSU extolled the virtues of overhead shade cloth netting to both prevent sunburn and hail damage (at least when it is installed in time). Last time we were in Washington for the IFTA summer tour we looked at different color netting, but it looks like the white color has become the standard. Interestingly, behind us was a block of Honeycrisp planted on G.890 rootstock, hoping for more vigor I guess? But the M.9's generally looked pretty good wherever we went (as long as there is no fire blight).
Shade cloth that serves double-duty hail protection at AgriMACS, Inc. managed Honeycrisp block. Inset is hail damage from June where netting was not installed in time.
We are getting there, the final (at least for me) IFTA summer tour stop was Dale Goldy's G2 Orchards. Planted with 'Minneiska' (SweeTango) trees from his own Gold Crown Nursery, it's a 'pedestrian' orchard with -- believe it or not -- six feet between rows and tree height limited to app. seven feet. I believe these trees, mostly on G.935 rootstock, were planted 4.5 feet apart with some training of branches to the horizontal wires. I saw a lot of shoot growth coming into the row, I told Dale to get a hedger and don't look back! A lot of late hand thinning had been done. Interesting for sure, I did appreciate the overhead mist cooling being on as it was getting hot! Oh, we also had a brief look at a similar 'Hapi' pear block and some equipment modified to fit these truly 'dwarf' blocks.
Pedestrian 'Minnesika' orchard block at G2 Orchards. Note the late hand-thinned apples on ground? These apples might have been only a month away from harvest? Check out the misting video below, ahhh....
As I previously mentioned, I skipped the Day 3 pear and cherry orchard tours, but you can see and read a bit about them on the IFTA Facebook page. Overall, much thanks to the orchard owners and staff we visited, and the tour coordinators, including IFTA management. I found we spent a lot of time standing and listening though, would have appreciated some more facilitated give and take (pruning, training, thinning) like in the old days. Or maybe it's just me, too much time standing in the hot sun getting more brain-fried than I already am!!!???
The International Fruit Tree Association (IFTA) held it's 65th Annual Conference in Hershey, PA from February 13-15, 2022. Orchard tour day was Monday, February 14. Cold and windy, but mostly sunny, true to IFTA fashion. (Cold and windy, not so sure about the sunny part?) I will have to admit, I was not terribly well engaged, I was dealing with everyone's earbuds and the speakers transmitter device so everyone could hear. Not terribly sold on it when the crowd is on the small side, there were 4 buses total, and mostly each orchard stop had only one bus, about 35 people. Sometimes I wonder if those earbuds do not foster engagement particulary well either? I would opt for the more traditional mic and speaker when the crowd is small. (Or have the speaker speak up? It's not that hard.) Oh well, enough of my complaining. I will give you a brief rundown of what I/we saw on the tour.
First stop, Penn State Fruit Research & Extension Center (FRAC, fitting for Pennsylvania, if you know what I mean), where Dr. Jim Schupp talked about his peach rootstock and hi-density peach plantings. The rootstock trial was planted in 2017 with Cresthaven as the variety trained to a Perpendicular-V. It looked good, Schupp says Controller 6, 7, and 8 reduce tree size somewhat at 80-90% compared to Lovell rootstock, and they are all about the same size to date. (Controller 6 "should" be smaller though.) Rootpac 40 and MP-29 are pretty dwarfing, 66% and 31% of Lovell respectively, and will likely need some kind of support as scaffold breakage and drooping are a problem. FYI, this is an NC-140 Regional Rootstock Research Project, more info here.) Speaking of support, Schupp also showed us a young hi-density peach planting, the rootstocks escape me, but trees were planted very close together and to a Perpendicular-V. Schupp was experimenting with removal of one of the scaffolds on alternating (every 2-3 years?) basis to renew the scaffold(s) and prevent the lower part of the trees from becoming shaded and non-productive. He wanted to make a pedestrian peach orchard. The scaffolds were supported by a T-post type trellis with two wires (about head height). I did not particularly like it, I say good luck.
Dr. Jim Schupp, NC-140 peach rootstock planting at FREC
A pedestrian peach orchard? Really Jim? Kind of an oxymoron isn't it?
At FREC we also checked in with Dr. Long He's crew (aka grad students) in the engineering shed where each presented their project, including: robotic pruning and green fruit thinning, sensors in the orchard (Internet of Things, IoT), intelligent spraying, and imaging of fruit buds, flower clusters, and fruit(lets) using a Moog data "rover" ATV (part of PACMAN). Interesting stuff, some maybe a bit far-fetched? But that is what University researchers do, don't they?
I thought the drones and heat mapping were pretty cool. I envision drones could easily scout large areas, report back to the home base for further investigation by real eyes?
Dr. He shows us the Moog data rover, the ultimate goal being gainful adoption of precision crop load management
Stop two, Hollabaugh Bros. Inc. market and orchard. Their family run market is well known in the area, since 1955, and has the usual bakery, apples, groceries, and gift shop. There was a "bee" room which I gather is popular with the kids? It was popular with me as the cider donuts and coffee were served there... :-) Because it was Valentine's Day, I noted some were picking up gifts for their significant other. In the Hollabuagh Bros. orchard, well, I don't remember a whole lot, a mature semi-dwarf pear block, they like the fire blight resistant pears from Ontario, Harrow Sweet and Cold Snap? An on-farm peach rootstock planting sponsored by the Penn State Extension folks, Hollabaugh's being one of 12 farms with the planting of Controller 6, 7, 8 and Krymsk 86 with PF Lucky 13 on top. And some tall-spindle apples, generally looking good, but with some talk about fire blight history and M.9 rootstocks. Some active pruning was going on by the Hollabaugh orchard crew on a platform. BTW, during the Conference, attendees unanomously agreed a platform was the number one peice of "technology" that every orchard should have. Did I say it was cold and windy, and the cider donuts were beckoning?
Bruce (and father Brad listening) at Hollabaugh Bros. Inc. orchard. Mature talls-spindle apples, Gala, Fuji, Honeycrisp. More trees missing on M.9 than other rootstocks. Otherwise, no complaints here.
After lunch at the local Biglersville fire station -- it was very good, need I say more -- it was a quick hop to Rice Fruit Company. Usually packing house stops are quite ho-hum for me, but the Rice team did a good job showing us their pre-sorter operation, packing line, mesmerizing robotic technology (video below, and they do not take a coffee and donut break, unlike me!), and a bit about their marketing and who they pack apples for. Including Ocean Crisp Apples Honeycrisp out of Nova Scotia. Interesting. Not much to say here except Rice has kept up with innovation in the apple packing business, and the younger generation is slowly taking over running the show. Which reminds me, we got a demo of StemPunk by Leighton Rice, a wearable stem "clipper" while picking Honeycrisp (and other?) apples.
OK, finishing up the tour at Mt. Ridge Farms with father David and son Blake Slaybaugh. David showed us his "workshop." Jaw-droppingly well outfitted with lots of new "toys" and clean. Very impressive. While inside we also got a demo of Noble Orchards Software Solutions recordkeeping application. Out in the orchard with Blake we got into a bit of discussion about pruning, we felt they were not removing enough branches wholesale while leaning more toards cutting them back, the bud load seemed to high and could be corrected by wholesale removal of more branches? Plus, M.9 was showing more tree mortality, call it RAD/SAD whatever, but I put two and two together and call it fire blight in the M.9 rootstock. Oh, did I mention that Premier Honeycrisp was found here? I think that helps explain all the new shop toys! :-)
Blake Slaybaugh. Pruning is always a source of good (conflicting?) dialog on IFTA tours! But it's all good!
That's about all I got, short and sweet, it was a good tour and the best thing was time spent on the buses was minimal, all the orchards were in Adams County and the Biglerville area, and it was less than an hour from Conference central at the Hershey Lodge. The downside of that of course, is not much nap time on the bus. And thanks to Jen Baugher our bus leader. Check out my Twitter feed if you want to see some of the Conference presenters slides (along with my comments). Or search the hashtag #ifruittree on Twitter for more. For 2023, here we come Grand Rapids...
You get the idea, but, I am always looking for that "magic bullet" to make it more accurate and my life easier. To that end, I tried to follow in 2021 the exact RECIPE as described above. The details:
six Honeycrisp trees selected on G.11 rootstock in our 2014 NC-140 Honeycrisp planting at the UMass Orchard in Belchertown, MA
14 flower clusterd tagged and whole tree bloom counted
measuring of fruitlets began on 18-May, and were measured 5 more times at 2-3 day intervals (average persisting fruit size on 21-May was 9.2 mm) until the last measurement on 4- June (7 days after the previous measurement, average fruit size of persisting fruits was 24.2 mm)
at first, measurements were voice-entered into the Malusim app, however, once it got "flakey" I switched to using the Orchard Tools app, which worked very well.
used the Malusim app at first to predict fruit set, however, quickly discovered there were some issues in the way erroneous (too big or too small) measurements were being handled and thrown out, switched to the Ferri spreadsheet, although I did not use the tree top and bottom distinction.
Here is the result from the Ferri spreadsheet and I think it was quite accurate. It's a no-brainer to follow this RECIPE for tall spindle trees and apples of high value such as Honeycrisp, Gala, and Fiji. I'll admit I did not follow it to guide my chemical thinner applications, because someone else chose the rates and timing and made the applications on their schedule. But it worked out.
Actual number of apples per tree at harvest 61! Pretty close to 70 predicted!
So, what's half-baked about it? Well, myself and colleagues at UMass (Dan Cooley and PhD student Paul O'Connor to be exact) are collaborating with researchers at Carnegie Melon University (CMU) on a NIFA funded project: Using Computer Vision to Improve Data Input for Precision Thinning Models in Apples. I pushed for them to use the RECIPE while doing their study of computer vision to measure fruit growth, and on two other varieties (Gala and Fuji) and another Honeycrisp block. So they did, with the exception is that all data was collected by pen and paper, but thanks to our summer help (Evan Krause), was entered and imported into the Ferri spreadsheet to predict fruit set. OK. I ran the model in the Ferri spreadsheet and came up with some very low fruit set numbers. I won't even show you that here, because although it was more-or-less field evaluated, it was by observation only. Even though I believe final fruit set was counted, the data entry source escapes us at this time. (Arghh.) Here was the problem, the student plucked spur leaves off tagged spurs to assist with the computer vision, and I believe that resulted in very poor fruit set (compared to the rest of the tree) on those hobbled spurs. (Hasn't someone a long, long time ago stressed the importance of healthy spur leaves for susbsequent fruit set and size/quality?) It's too bad because otherwise had the help to do a nice set of fruitlet measurements to run in the fruitlet growth rate model. Next year? No half-baked research? (Maybe?) But thankfully -- both to me as the writer and you the reader? -- this is the last half-baked research for 2021!
YouTube video of May 19, 2021 Twilight Meeting at UMass Orchard with CMU robot
Honeycrisp is arguably the poster child for bitter pit. (With the exception of Cortland, but who would want to grow those anyways? LOL.) Bitter pit reduces packout of saleable fresh fruit significantly in some years, up to 50%. And you can put otherwise good looking (no bitter pit) Honeycrisp in storage and then when pulled out of storage a couple months later you go home crying.
Much has been researched and written on Honeycrisp bitter pit management (reduction), however, the problem is nowhere near totally solved. Nutrients in the skin and flesh of Honeycrisp apples – particularly nitrogen, calcium, and potassium – may play an important role, but there are many other factors including growing season weather, crop load, tree vigor, etc., those are all players too. Read more in "It's the calcium stupid!"
But nutrition was the factor fully “looked at” but not really fully “evaluated” in 2021. By “looked at” I mean multiple leaf and fruit nutrient analyses using different analysis vendors, including industry and University testing labs. Let me outline what these were, and then attempt to make some sense of the results and how it might relate to bitter pit incidence. But I’ll tell you up front, Honeycrisp exhibited quite a bit of bitter pit starting pre-harvest in 2021, part of which I blame on a very wet summer and very large apples. All samples were collected from the UMass Orchard in Belchertown, MA, and I don’t consider our nutrition program specifically targeting BP all that much. So let’s see what tissue samples I/we collected and then what nutrient analyses results might have told us?
First, how/what/where tissue (and fruit) samples were collected and sent for analyses:
Agro-K (Minneapolis, MN) has been promoting their leaf SAP analyses to existing and potential customers. Leaf samples – from older and younger leaves individually on terminal growth, enough leaves to fill a one quart zip-loc bag, and without petioles – are collected in the morning and shipped overnight (via FEDEX) to a lab in the Netherlands (NovaCrop). There were three collection dates for Honeycrisp: 15-June, 19-July, and 10-August. Oh, leaves were collected off Honeycrisp on G.11 rootstock, which has been problematic for bitter pit in the past.
Peel SAP analysis by the Cornell Nutrient Lab and Lailiang Cheng’s lab at Cornell AgriTech in Geneva, NY. Honeycrisp fruit samples (about 30 apples, off the same trees on G.11, and I also did G.41 to compare) were collected in early July when the fruits were 50 to 60 grams. The apples were peeled and the peels frozen prior to delivery to Cornell for the analysis. (Thanks to Mike Basedow for meeting me in the Hudson Valley and ultimately getting those frozen samples to Geneva.) I received the results back in mid-August, which included Ca, K, Mg, N (all ppm), and K/Ca, (K+Mg)/Ca and N/Ca ratios.
Dan Donahue’s Environment Minerals Rootstock (EMR) bitter pit analysis out of Cornell’s Hudson Valley Commercial Hort Program. Honeycrisp fruits (app. 12, off both the G.11 and G.41 rootstocks) were collected in early August, peeled, and the peels sent off to Dan to forward to the Cornell Nutritional Analysis Lab in Ithaca. Results were back by mid-September and included the % of apples expected to have bitter pit developing in a month or two of cold storage.
Various fruit and tissue samples were also sent off to two independent labs, Waypoint Analytical and SoilTech NW Ag Testing Services (analyses by Brookside Labs). Waypoint is open to anyone but SoilTech only to consultants by invitation. Basic mineral analyses with recommendations were performed, I will try to summarize the results below.
So here we go in an attempt to summarize the results of all the samples submitted to the various labs for analyses. And some snapshots of what the results looked like from each testing service.
Leaf SAP analysis – indicated there were generally few problems. The SAP analyses are quite comprehensive, including a listing of 24 line items, some not normally included in nutrient analysis, such as Total Sugars, pH, sodium, cobalt, and nitrogen in 4 forms (ammonium, nitrate, N in nitrate, and Total Nitrogen). Most nutrients were in the optimum range, with these exceptions: Fe (iron) was consistently low (is that a problem?); nitrate nitrogen and boron were high; and total sugars were high (indicates the plant is really cranking?) Remember, samples were collected over three dates and from old and new leaves on the shoots. Verdict out on this one, but over time might be very useful in quickly remedying problems or indicating you are doing a good job with nutrient management. Below in Figure 1 is a snapshot of the NovaCrop result but here is a full report if you want to see it.
Figure 1 - Portion of NovaCrop SAP analysis result
Peel SAP Analysis – courtesy of Cornell (thanks Terence Robinson and Lailiang Cheng), interesting and disheartening result when you see RED (as below in Figure 2) in the cells. RED usually means bad things compared to GREEN and YELLOW doesn’t it? But not too surprising, and probably a good analysis that I would buy based on field observation. And it aligned with the EMR results next…
Figure 2 - Peel SAP Analysis interpretation courtesy of Terence Robinson and Lailian Cheng
Environment Minerals Rootstock (EMR) – similar to Peel SAP Analysis, a bitter pit buffet. Suggests nearly a third (for G.41 at least, one out of 5 apples for G.11, bad enough) of the Honeycrisp will come out of storage with some bitter pit as seen in Figure 3. Not good. Nor did I verify that result unfortunately. Hence half-baked.
Figure 3 - Dan Donahue's (Cornell) EMR bitter pit prediction
Waypoint Analytical is my latest go-to for leaf analysis with the apparent demise of University soils and tissue testing labs? Waypoint provides a quick turn-around of results including a nice graphical output (Figure 4). For this years Honeycrisp/G.11 leaf analysis, well, it looked pretty good overall. The only nutrient judged deficient by Waypoint was Potassium. But I’d like to see Nitrogen trending towards the Low side, while Calcium would be on the high Sufficient side. See the whole PLANT ANALYSIS here.
And finally, SoilTech NW, which was a whole fruit analysis. SoilTech NW is a testing service by invite only as I mentioned, I have been using it in a collaboration with a managed apple variety. I really like their output, and they have developed their own set of desired nutrient ranges based on their database of samples over many years. The result here kind of mirrors the Waypoint leaf analysis, mostly in Nitrogen being high and Calcium low (Figure 5). Magnesium is kind of high too. All things being equal, Magnesium and Potassium are antagonistic to Calcium uptake, and with high Nitrogen it’s not a good outlook for bitter pit. Or do I mean it’s a good outlook for bitter pit, and a not so good outlook for storage potential as can be seen here in the complete results.
Figue 5 - Graphical interpretation of SoilTech NW fruit nutrient analysis
So, all things considered, I/we could have done better when managing nutrients in Honeycrisp for reduced bitter pit in 2021. There’s always next year, but remember there are many other factors affecting bitter pit incidence in Honeycrisp, primarily tree vigor (overly vigorous, excessive pruning), cropload (lighter with bigger fruit means more bitter pit), tree age (younger trees more susceptible), and high nitrogen/low calcium ratios. And in the Northeast, it was generally a high bitter pit year, the wet growing season (large apples and diluted calcium content) likely being the primary reason. But there is always room for improvement in nutrient management, and doing leaf and fruit nutrient analyses no matter which lab you use is necessary information to improve your orchard bitter pit reduction diet.
Wow, my third International Fruit Tree Association (IFTA) event in 2022. Annual Conference in Hershey, PA in February, Summer Tour in Washington in July, and now just back (as I start wring this anyways) from Italy Study Tour, November 11-19. And we covered a lot of ground -- Bologna, to Venice, to Bolzano, to Milan. Some orchard visits but a good dose of bus time, tourist stops, and trade shows. I posted a real time highlight from each orchard stop on the IFTA Facebook page, I will bounce off those with more detail here, including a bit of one tourist stop for your entertainment.
