4 easy steps to peach pruning

Normally we don't prune peaches until April or May, however, the warm weather last week and an upcoming presentation with a need to have a video on peach pruning prompted us to do this. Wes Autio, Professor of Pomology, UMass Amherst, demonstrates a simplified '4-step' method for pruning young peach trees. These peaches, 'PF-14 New Jersey,' planted at the UMass Cold Spring Orchard will be in their third growing season, and are being trained to an open-center. During the first two years, excess branching was left to establish the trees and force some branching 'out,' but now is the time to select the permanent scaffold limbs and prepare the tree for fruiting -- we would hope to pick about 20 lbs. of fruit off this tree this year. In reality, further shoot and fruit thinning may likely have to be done this spring after a crop is set. Enjoy.

It's January

It's January. What can I say? (Happy New Year?) At least the days are getting longer. Some significant events over the past few weeks (or month):

1.) New England Vegetable and Fruit Conference in December. Well-attended, but a major snowstorm on the last day made getting home very difficult -- 'historic' gridlock on major highways in east and south New England. It took us 6 hours to drive from Manchester, NH to Belchertown, MA, normally a 2 hour ride.

2.) Northeast Meeting of American Society for Hort. Science, at Rutgers last week. Presented a poster '5-year performance of three dwarf apple rootstocks with Cameo apple.'

3.) Got home from that meeting and saw that it had fallen to -12 F. in Chicopee, MA last Friday morning. We got down to -4.3 F. in Belchertown. Not low enough to do any damage to stone fruit, but getting there. I would hold off on apple pruning until the weather becomes more seasonable.

4.) You got to see this to believe it: http://edwardsorchard.info. Ken Hall was president of IDFTA when we were helping them with their website several years ago, and I could not imagine a more supportive, intelligent, and well-rounded individual. What happened to them last week is simply unbelievable. But, as you can see, their cup is always half (or more) full! What is the deal with this weather? Imagine if this had happened during the growing season or when they were open for business? I guess they were ultimately very lucky in that no one was hurt, it happened this time of the year -- giving them time to rebuild -- and new opportunities abound. Good luck Ken and family/Edwards Orchard with rebuilding.

5.) I have been working on revising the herbicide section(s) of the 2008 New England Tree Fruit Pest Management Guide. Keeping up with all the label changes and new products is not easy. There seems to be rapid change in the agri-chemical industry with new products being introduced and manufacturer changes. Which begs the question -- how do YOU get your detailed pesticide information (i.e., rates, re-entry and pre-harvest intervals, labeled crops, etc.)? Please take my survey right above.

6.) AGR/AGR-Lite Crop Insurance Meeting on January 28.

6.) Finally, just found out MFGA was awarded a $95,000 grant from Mass. Dept. Ag. Resources Ag. Innovation. This, to plant 10 acres of tall-spindle orchard in 10 MA orchards over the next two years. Should be an interesting project, more on it to come.

JC

Colorado NC-140 video

A few thoughts (too busy for much else)

Harvest has been in full swing, so not much time for extras. But, a few things that have come to mind recently:

1.) Why do we charge more for some apples, i.e. Honeycrisp? Supply and demand? Are they really that much better than say, a good Jonagold, Gala, Empire, and many more 'commodity' apples. Please vote at right.

2.) NPR Saturday (29-Sep) Weekend Edition, an interesting story on how codling moth has become resistant to the granulosis virus in Germany.

3.) 2nd leaf Liberty planted on B.9 rootstock yielding a bit more than 5 lbs. (or more) per tree, if you could get $1 a pound retail that should pretty well pay for the cost of the tree -- well, if you get a good deal on the trees!

4.) September has been significantly warmer (and dryer) than average, yet drop has been minimal and fruit quality seems to be holding very well. Particularly trees treated with ReTain® PGR. You be the judge.

5.) Now finishing Macoun's, last of Honeycrisp (unbelievable), McIntosh (more unbelievable), and Cortland. In the middle of Jonagold. Empire just starting.

6.) Spent last Friday at the Big-E handing out slices of Jonagold, Honeycrisp, Macoun, and Gala in front of the Massachusetts Building. Massachusetts specialty foods on the lawn sponsored by Mass. Dept. of Agricultural Resources. Honeycrisp clearly a winner. Jonagold almost as good, and I think this apple is every bit as good as Honeycrisp and not promoted as such. "I did not know you could grow Gala here" a common comment. These eastern grown Gala (Buckeye and Brookfield) are again in a class with Honeycrisp I think. Macoun for those who like tart apples -- we in Mass. kind of have a cult following for them. Funny, apple tastes seem to fall in to either liking it sweet or liking it tart and never should the two cross! Although I think Jonagold comes closest, being a nice blend of sweetness and tartness. Sweet-tart? Tart-sweet?

:-)

Early Fuji's, Crimson Crisp, and some yield observations

Harvest is cranking and we are amidst McIntosh and Honeycrisp. Recently, several new 'early' Fuji strains have become available that are in this mid-September harvest window. They include September Wonder (formerly Jubilee), Auvil Early, Daybreak, and Rising Sun. There are probably others. We have September Wonder, Daybreak, and Rising Sun at the UMass Cold Spring Orchard. I favor Daybreak which is available from Adams County Nursery. September Wonder, although good in appearance, lacks flavor IMHO. Rising Sun, an International Plant Management introduction, I don't have much experience yet. My colleague Win Cowgill from Rutgers has done significant testing of these early Fuji cvs. but I am not sure if he has published any of his results yet -- Win?

Mo Tougas (Tougas Family Farm) just told me he thought Crimson Crisp (pictured) was looking nice. Crimson Crisp is a scab-resistant apple recently introduced by PRI and tested in the 1999 NE-183 planting. I looked at it too, and indeed among scab-resistant apples it has merit. See my latest round of apple maturity reports.

Finally, a couple quick yield observations. 6th leaf Lindamac on M.9 planted at 4x12, 675 boxes/acre. 2nd leaf Honeycrisp on B.9 (Stark Bros. trees) planted at 3x12 app. 230 bushels/acre. (See Sep-12 video post.) Both nice, easy to manage trees. The way to grow apples.

Ciao until next time.

2nd leaf Honeycrisp on B.9 rootstock

Blushingstar a fine maiden

I think of this very early September period as the 'golden time' for tree fruit. Early fall apples are starting to come along and peaches are still going strong. It is the start of a rapid transition to true fall, but summer is still definitely in the air. Case in point is the fact McIntosh has reached acceptable harvest maturity -- at least for a first pick based on color -- as have also Honeycrisp. And I just picked Blushingstar, pictured at left, another of the Fruit Acres series of Stellar peaches. White flesh, aromatic, somewhat firm, large, and very attractive. This is a premium piece of fruit that we can grow here in southern New England that rivals any piece of tree fruit grown anywhere in the world! Absolutely beautiful. Hence, the 'golden time.' Enjoy it's fleeting days while you can.