New website – tallspindleapple.com – focuses on the Tall-Spindle apple production system

The Tall-Spindle (TS) apple seems to have become the standard hi-density orchard production system in the Northeast. Promoted by Cornell’s Terence Robinson for several years now, the TS uses fully dwarfing rootstocks planted at 3-4 feet between trees and app. 12 feet between rows (~1,200 trees per acre) to achieve high early yields, high sustainable yields, reduced labor costs, and highest return on investment compared to apple orchards planted at lower or higher densities.

Although Robinson has been on the TS speaking circuit for several years now, and co-authored several publications on the TS apple production system, there is a new website – tallspindleapple.com (Fig. 1.)– with links to other websites, publications, and videos on how to do the TS.

Tallspindleapple.com is broken down into Publications, Presentations, and Video with links to the best TS resources on the web. For example, under Publications, there is a link to ‘The Tall-Spindle Apple Production System’ by T. Robinson in the New York Fruit Quarterly. Presentations include ‘Different Approaches to Tall-Spindle Establishment in Apple’ by R. Perry, and ‘The Tall-Spindle: critical steps to Suceess’ by J. Clements. Videos show ‘4 Rules for Pruning Tall Spindle Apple’ and ‘Pruning the Tall-Spindle from a Platform’ among others. New content and links will be added as they are published. Website visitors are encouraged to submit or identify new content for publication on tallspindleapple.com.

Tallspindleapple.com is the work of me and is hosted by the UMass Fruit Advisor (umassfruit.com). I bring 10 years of experience to tallspindleapple.com beginning with a 2001 visit to Italy where the Tall-Spindle apple is grown in quantity, visits to other progressive apple growing regions such in Europe and North America, studying Terence Robinson’s teaching, and my own experience growing Tall-Spindle apples at the UMass Cold Spring Orchard and cooperating apple growers throughout Massachusetts.

Pruning the tall-spindle apple - Take 4

Pruning the tall-spindle apple - Take 2

An apple orchard support system failure...

Wow, I am getting better on the posts. A few observations from my quick look-around:

Sunburn on apples is the worse I ever seen it. Undoubtedly from 2 weeks ago when several days approached 100 F. with full sun. (Is that like Washington weather?) I don't think this is going to go away by harvest. What to do? Well, if it is going to get hot and sunny again the only solution I know of is to apply Surround. I would do it only on my high-value apples like Honeycrisp and yellow varieties (maybe Gala?). Surround will also keep Japanese Beetles at bay. I am not sure if apples get more prone to sunburn as they ripen or not?

Dogwood borers in pheromone trap -- 19 in less than a week. Borers are mating and laying eggs on tree trunk/rootstocks with burr knots. Perpetual infestation by the borer larvae can eventually girdle and weaken or kill the tree. A trunk coarse spray of Lorsban targeting the above ground portion of the rootstock and lower trunk is indicated, particularly on rootstocks that have a tendency to form burr-knots (M.106, M.26, M.9).

Codling moth (CM) in dogwood borer pheromone trap. Hmm, what to think? I am concerned, although apple maggot sprays with an OP insecticide like Imidan should do the job in killing hatching eggs. I think, however, it is a matter of time before CM becomes more of a problem here in Massachusetts -- could this be the year? We may have to think about using newer chemistries such as Altacor, Delegate, and Turismo (among others) to control internal leps. I am confused -- are you? I would say there are no less than 15-20 chemical options, plus you could do mating disruption. (Too late for that this year.) Be sure to visit the NEWA website for real-time predictions on CM and other insect pests and diseases of apples.

Good luck. JC

A week? LOL! More like months, let's see April 30, now July 18. Cherries have all been picked. See here for my harvest results. Now we are picking early peaches, and likewise, see here for harvest results. All I can say is daily temperatures are averaging 5-10 degrees above normal, so I would think that, combined with the early bloom, are adding up to a very early peach season. Right now, easily 10-14 days ahead of 'average.' Based on the forecast, I think this is going to keep up -- I foresee Redhaven harvest commencing about July 31, which is a good 10-14 days ahead. We'll see.

Also of note, good attendance, 75+ at the Annual Summer Meeting of the Massachusetts Fruit Growers' Association, last Thursday, July, 15. Orchard tour of the UMass Cold Spring Orchard in Belchertown, followed by BBQ lunch catered by Outlook Farm, and then presentations by Peter Jentsch (Cornell's Hudson Valley Lab), Dan Cooley, and Duane Greene.

Uni-baum cherries

I seem to be about a week behind on these posts, but on Friday, April 30 I planted 75 sweet cherries at the UMass Cold Spring Orchard 2 ft. apart. These cherries -- 25 each of Rainier, Skeena, and Benton, on either Gisela 3 or 5 dwarfing rootstocks -- were excess trees grown by Willow Drive Nursery for a 2010 NC-140 cherry planting. After going to IFTA in Michigan in March, and specifically after visiting SWMREC during a pre-conference tour to see MSU Greg-Lang's sweet cherry planting there, including trees planted 2 ft. apart, I decided to give it a try. According to Italy's Stefano Musacchi, who demonstrated pruning these 'uni-baum' cherries, they can grow large cherries on relatively short (3 m. high) trees. I thought they would be easy to cover to prevent loss from birds and rain cracking, and thus such a system might be suitable for small-scale plantings in Massachusetts for retail or U-pick plantings of sweet cherries. I have 25 Regina trees coming next year to complete the planting. We'll see how it goes. JC