Carrying on tradition of posting about my International Fruit Tree Association (#ifruittree) trips, this time Grand Rapids, MI. I tweeted a bit about the Conference speakers over two days, there were - how should I say politely? - the good talks and the not so good talks, but that is OK. Here I will post a bit about the orchard tour stops, again, a mixed bag IMHO, I'm just calling it as I see it! So here goes...
First stop, Riveridge Land Company "a vertically-integrated company that operates over 860 acres of orchards." Apples and cherries, both metallic V-trellis a la what you see a lot of in Washington. It was OK, but those things cost a lot of money to establish. All things being equal, V-trellis intercepts a lot of sunlight per acre, hence can lead to maximum production per acre. But there are a lot of "gotcha's" IMHO, including training trees (to tie or not to tie?), and in the case of cherries, canker issues. I thought, especially with the cherries, a lot going on here. Cherry variety was "Skeena," apples were Honey's and Fuji's? But the main attraction were the Voen "rain" covers also serving as frost protection with "included" Voen gravity-fed pellet heaters at 20 per acre. Got the impression was both quite effective at preventing frost/freeze damage and preventing rain cracking. Apparently Riverridge has a good wholesale packing and marketing strategy, however, exactly how profitable the whole thing -- covered, hi-density sweet cherries in a humid/lower light environment such as Michigan -- is remains elusive? On the side, I was told they (Riveridge) may be moving to a UFO-style narrow canopy sweet cherry orchard, higher quality cherries and simpler management in that planar canopy? Did I mention we looked at apples on the V-trellis too, likely a better bet, unless organic? 😅
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| V-trellis cherries at Riveridge with 'Voen' rain/frost/freeze prevention covers |
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| Gravity-fed wood pellet heater to further prevent frost/freeze damage, part of the Voen system |
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| V-trellis apple orchard at Riveridge Land Company |
Yup, organic apples at Riveridge. 80 acres. Major issues? Lack of tree growth/vigor compared to conventional, organic fertility (particularly nitrogen) always being a bugaboo. Weed control using landscape fabric leading to vole damage. I had to ask, what about mechanical cultivation as is so common in Europe? (No particularly good answer.) Pest control challenges (plum curculio, scab) such that much of the fruit goes to processing. But apparently demand exceeds supply, and there is a premium paid for organic processing apples, baby food? I got the impression Riveridge was doing it to broaden their portfolio as a supplier so they could offer organic as well as conventional to their customers? A bit of greenwashing? Maybe. Although there was some discussion about the larger organic ideals of soil health, organic pest control, etc. by guest Kyle Rasch of Tom Rasch & Son Orchards.
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| 80-acre organic apple block at Riveridge |
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| Vole damage exacerbated by fabric landscape cloth for weed control in organic orchard (photo courtesy Andre Tougas) |
On to Rasch Family Orchards. (Yea, there are a lot of Rasch's out there on the "ridge." And Dietrich's 😂.) Hosted by "characters wanted" Jake Rasch in their hi-density peach block. I couldn't help myself thinking they've been drinking the Greg Lang Kool-Aid! Walking up the hill I saw some pretty nice looking perpendicular-V peaches, but we were looking at a planar V-system with wires, tying, etc. Rationale, according to Jake was better peach quality (mostly red color), labor efficiencies (platforms), and it did not take that much more work than the Perp-V's? Maybe, I could buy that, and am generally an advocate of hi-density tree fruit production, but I worry about within-the-row shading and -- as with all peach systems -- maintaining a properly sufficient light environment in the bottom of the trees. Remember, no really proven dwarfing rootstocks for peaches yet, so it's pretty hard to make a big tree "small." I already saw some pruning messes? Might be better off dispersing the vigor more into Upright-Fruiting-Offshoots, UFO? That can continually be renewed? But I will give Jake the benefit of the doubt for now...mostly because he was just good-humored about the whole thing!
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Pruning and training demo by Jake Rasch in planar 'V' peach system.
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Ugh! What now Jake Rasch?
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After BBQ lunch at a Riveridge pack house we re-assembled in an apple orchard newly aquired by LTI (Let's Try It) Ag Research. Hosted by LTI founder Tye Wittenbach and his righ-hand person Dan Zemaitis. LTI "was founded in 2021 by a group of like-minded industry professionals who identified a need for on-farm research in the apple industry. LTI will focus on membership-driven research of industry problems that face growers each season." The focus here at LTI was a just-planted "apple rootstock evaluation in a replant scenario." Two things stuck out to me: first, lots of replication but absolutely no randomization in terms of experimental design; and second, pretty lousy trees with very few branches. After the fact it's easy to criticise, but either at the nursery or when planted some effort should have been made to promote braching in these young apple trees. Now they are in a situation where they got to get some branches growing on older (2 or three years) wood, which is not easy. Much discusssion about ensued. Maybe it was exacerbated by the replant effect too? Whatever, I would not be happy if it was MY orchard...
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| LTI's 'Let's Try It' apple replant 'experiment.' |
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| "Where's the branches?" These trees at LTI were somewhat neglected in the nursery and in the first year in the orchard where some intervention (PGR's) could have helped prevent the blind wood seen here. |
Last stop of our day was J. Engelsma Orchard at Engelsma's Apple Cider Barn, Michigan's best "blue ribbon" cider pressed fresh daily. Bridget Engelsma gave us a quick tour of the cidery, but then we followed Jim Engelsma out to a young block of Honeycrisp/B.9 trained to two leaders. I remember these "whip" trees were headed low at planting to get the two leaders, and now the struggle is to get to the top wire (at 9-10 feet) on that weak rootstock. Getting there, but not quite, and Jim admitted, might never happen. Jim's proposed pruning on these trees was done in a couple rows, mostly shortening "click" style pruning of last year's shoot growth to keep the trees planar and set flower buds closer to the trunk? At least that is what I took home, I think Jim's ultimate solution will be using a mechanical hedger with some annual dormant hand-pruning of bigger wood. Should be easy 😎
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| It was a cold, frosty morning when Andre Tougas took this picture (thanks Andre!) of Jim Engelsma's bi-leader Honeycrisp/B.9 block |
OK, enought of me being "negative Nancy" (or so I am told), thanks to IFTA Education Director Greg Lang, the local Michigan State University crew (Amy Irish-Brown, Anna Wallis, Emily Lavely, Derek Plotkowski, Phil Schwallier [retired], and Todd Einhorn), and Ag Association Management (Shane, Shari, Bethany) for hosting, educating, and humoring all 300 or so of us IFTA'rs. Lest me not forget the couple of freeloaders on my tour bus looking for free food and a warm place to spend the day, they succeeded in pulling the wool over my eyes! 👻
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