The Fruit Growers News - October 2000


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IDFTA Tour Visits Mac Country in Champlain Valley
By Lee Dean Managing Editor
The Champlain Valley apple growing region of northern New York and Vermont is McIntosh country, and will likely remain that way for many years to come. But there’s a new neighbor moving in called Honeycrisp, and that variety took up plenty of the attention during this summer’s International Dwarf Fruit Tree Association (IDFTA) tour of the region. A good example of the Mac-Honeycrisp dynamics is Chazy Orchard in Chazy, N.Y., the self-proclaimed world’s largest McIntosh growers. The Macs are still going in - last year more Rogers Macs went in on M.111 rootstocks. Before 1999, the plantings were 80% Mac and 20% Cortland. That year, Honeycrisp was added to the mix. “Macs are still the premier apple in the Champlain Valley. We feel they are still our bread and butter,” said principal orchard owner Tre Green. “Not everyone else can grow them and people like them. But Honeycrisp is the next variety that can grow here.” Rogers Mac, Pioneer Mac and Redmax are the three primary strains of Macs planted at Chazy Orchards. Starting in the 1980s, new plantings went in on M.111 rootstock. In 1987, the first M. 26s were put in on a weakened central leader. The next milestone was 1997, when Chazy planted its first Vertical Axe trees on two stocks, M.26 with 350 trees to the acre and Bud. 9 with 450 trees to the acre. Twenty acres of Vertical Axe have been planted in each of the past three years and an additional 20 acres will be planted in each of the next two years. “M.26 was the rootstock of choice. It produces an excellent tree that is precocious and grower-friendly. We also think Bud. 9 is doing well. It’s a rootstock with origins in Poland and Siberia, so it should do well here,” said Green. One memorable day eight years ago, Arctic air descended reaching -50&Mac251; at night and -20&Mac251; during the day. That event killed 100 acres of trees. That land was quickly sold and Green said the orchard is just now getting back to prior production levels. At Forrence Orchards in Peru, N.Y., co-owner Mason Forrence is also planting trees on the Vertical Axe system. “We still have a lot of dinosaur trees here. We still make money, but our margins are smaller,” he said. So a planting program has resulted in 40% of the orchard’s acreage on MM106, MM.111 and M.7 spaced at 15 x 24 feet; 20% of the trees on interstems of mostly M.9/MM.111 and M.26 spaced at 10 x 18 feet. Ten percent of the acreage are using the Vertical Axe at 5 x 16 feet or less with M.26, the M.9/MM.111 interstems or M.9. Mason and fellow Forrences McIntosh, Cortland, Peter and Seth grow a half-million bushels of apples a year, 75% of which are McIntosh, including a sport found on the orchard known as Forsmac. Other varieties include Cortland, Paulared, Empire, Red Delicious and JerseyMac. Most of the recent plantings include irrigation, which Mason said “may be the one way out of our replant problems.” Terence Robinson of Cornell University’s Department of Horticulture addressed the problems of planting apples so far north in conditions featuring winter damage and low vigor. Two of the most significant strategies under these conditions are to use more vigorous rootstocks and plant trees closer together. Robinson said the Vertical Axe trees have been showing signs of wind damage and blind wood, which he believes is a temporary problem. Despite all these problems, the growers are still coming through with quality apples. “These can grow the hardest, reddest Macs in the world,” said Robinson. Co-owner Tom Everett of Everett Orchards featured a 20-acre block that was purchased in 1995. At the time of purchase, the block had standard-sized trees, which were pushed out immediately and replanted in 1997 with trees on the Vertical Axe system. Rootstocks include M.9, Bud.9, M.26 and G30. One reason to move to vertical axe was because of problems with the central leader system, said Everett. “We were replanting Rogers Macs on central leader, but had a lot of difficulty filling the space. So we started with the Vertical Axe on the home farm. It is far and away better. It crops at a much earlier age. It is labor intensive at first, but now at the sixth leaf, and it’s nice to work with,” he said. Everett Orchards currently has 200 bearing acres and produces 140,000 bushels of apples. McIntosh takes the lead, and is followed by Cortland, Empire, Red Delicious, Paulared, Spartan and JerseyMac. Recent additions include Honeycrisp, Gingergold and Gala. Another Peru, N.Y. stop was Northern Orchard, hosted by owner Al Mulberry. Since the 1990s, Honeycrisp has joined McIntosh as a major cultivar. Other varieties grown include Macoun, Cortland, Paulared, Gingergold, Jonagold, Fortune and Gala. Plantings in the 1970s were predominantly on MM.111 and M.7. The rootstock picture changed during the 1980s when M.26 took over. Plantings of this particular stock continued through the 1990s, joined by M.9 and Bud.9. “Sometimes I think M.26 shows a biennial trend,” said Mulberry. “But it’s dependable and doesn’t winter kill.” Mulberry thought Honeycrisp trees had potential to produce excellent fruit, especially at the orchard’s latitude. So far, he has had no problem growing the tree, which comes into bearing well. There is variability between the individual apples, some of which are striped and others blush. Storability of the fruit is another issue. The Honeycrisp appear to sustain a soft scald type of injury when stored at 32 degrees. “Maybe it will be a fall variety we won’t store long term. But people who taste them like them. So we planted more,” said Mulberry. Gunnison Orchard in Crown Point, N.Y. is now operated by the sixth generation of the family and was founded in 1826. The focus at the Gunnison stop was deer and the fencing system installed to keep them out. After a dwarf rootstock planting in 1985, deer were no problem, said Hugh Gunnison. But soon herds as high as 60 or 70 animals would visit the orchard and dine on the tender young plantings. “Then I got permission to ‘harass’ the deer by firing cracker shot,” said Gunnison. “But soon that didn’t work. We would shoot and they’d turn aroundand look at us.” Last year, Mike Fargione of the Cornell Cooperative Extension Hudson Valley Fruit Program advised the Gunnisons on a deer fencing system. By the time of the IDFTA tour, nearly 5,400 feet of fencing was installed. Gunnison hasn’t yet computed what the entire cost for the project is, but knows that the fencing material alone cost $1.43 a foot and each gate came at a price of $250. Both wooden and metal posts were used. Twelve-foot posts were driven to a height of eight feet by a Fairbanks Industries post-pounder made in New Zealand. “The job of putting the fence up went quickly,” said Gunn-ison’s son Will. “All the tree and stump removal and land leveling needed to get ready to put the fence in took more time than putting the fence up.” The same post-pounder was used to install the end posts for the Gunnisons’ Vertical Axe trees. The powerful machine cut the time it would normally take to do the job in half, said Will. A drive into Sentinel Pine Orchards in Shoreham. Vt. reveals how the farm got its name. One large, lone pine stands guard over the blocks of apple trees grown by brothers Bill and Whit Blodgett. Tree support is a major concern for the Blodgetts due to the prevailing winds coming from Lake Champlain. The appearance of Hurricane Floyd in 1999 didn’t help matters, either. “The hurricane pulled up 3,000 trees here, and growers in the area lost $3 million,” said Wilt. “It came right at the start of Mac season just when we were starting to pick.” The Blodgetts are having good success with a tightly wound tree support device called an “arbor tie.” A block planted in 1995 is higher density and has a trellis support system with pressure treated posts. The Blodgetts pack and ship their own fruit and produce a yearly average of 86,000 bushels of apples. McIntosh is the dominant variety in the mix, at 70%. Other varieties include Empire and Macoun. Spacing is 8 x 16 and a variety of rootstocks are used, from M.7 to M.9. Macouns were planted this season on M.26. “We do have some Cortlands and Red Delicious, too,” said Bill. “But this will always be McIntosh country. There’s no need to go out and plant what everybody else has.” Lake Champlain’s winds may be a problem, but its water has been of great help to the Blodgetts in growing fruit. They are able to use the water to irrigate the entire orchard, which was especially helpful during the drought year of 1999. West Meadow Farm in New Haven, Vt. Features 24 acres of apples, said farm manager Jim Gallot. The orchard is in a planting program, with two acres ready for new trees in 2001 and three more acres in the next two seasons. The new plantings will be M.26 at 9 x 16, which Gallot says will be smaller and easier to manage than M.7s. The orchard grows 29 varieties of apples, specializing in the scab-resistant varieties Liberty, Redfree, William’s Pride, Prima, Nova Easygro, Pristine and a group of numbered New York selections. Gallot said William’s Pride has excellent quality fruit. Varieties that have produced good quality apples include Liberty, Redfree, Prima, NY 66305-139, Ny8120-42, NY 75413-30 and Nova Easygro. “I like alternative methods of insect control,” said Gallot. These include the use of Surround on disease resistant blocks. Surround is a kaolin clay based material that is sprayed onto the trees and fruit to provide a protective barrier to insects. “Last year we used Surround and there was no plum curculio damage on anything. This year we have found no plum curculio yet in Liberty. But we did see European apple sawfly damage. So we’re still not certain about Surround,” he said. A second technique is the use of a Ladd apple maggot trap consisting of the well-known red sphere surrounded by a yellow rectangle. For more information in the IDFTA go to:
http://www.idfta.org/