The Fruit Growers News - October 2001


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New Brunswick Partners Grow Apples Successfully

By Kathy Birt Canadian Correspondent

With 60 acres of trees the sweet smell of apple blossoms permeates the fresh spring air in and around the small village of Cocagne, New Brunswick, one of Canada’s Maritime Provinces. It’s here where brothers Euclide and Leopold Bourgeois, with their partners, Jean-Paul Bourque, and Ronald Goguen have been nurturing 35 varieties of apples since 1978. And how did these four apple growers come together? Euclide says they met while studying at the University of Moncton and the University of Ottawa. “That’s when we bought our first orchard.” It seems a combination of degrees in fine arts, plant geography and social geography was the right combination to make Le Fleur du Pommier, Ltd., the success it is today. Unlike many students of the day, these four ambitiously bought houses, instead of renting them. When studying was finished, they sold the houses. It was this buying and selling that eventually led them to buy a house in the country with an apple orchard. “We leased out the orchard to start. When the lease was up, some of us started growing apples. While expanding, we worked at jobs in our field of study.” Euclide says they increased their apple acreage by buying up old homesteads. With all four partners living on a “homestead” situated strategically within the 60 acres of trees, this setup makes for a smooth run operation. The apple grower says they planted about 300 to 400 standard trees, dwarf and semi-dwarfed, on each homestead, over the years. In fact, they have a variety of their own called “Sport” of Cortland. He says it takes about four years to get a tree ready for planting. While in the growing stages, Euclide says the trees have to be nurtured through (each growing stage.) Once full size, the work of bringing the trees to the fruit-bearing stage begins. With some 10,000 trees, the care of this huge orchard is almost year round. Pruning begins in March, sometimes with six feet of snow on the ground, and goes until the end of June. The apple grower says each tree needs pruning every year. “We take out water sprouts or “suckers” from the year old wood. This keeps the trees in a productive mood,” he said. Five or six people are hired to work at the pruning, and at the same time, there are five or six people in the warehouse packing last year’s crop. Yes, with 60 acres, the orchard rarely runs out of apples and the warehouse workers continue packing up to early July. The produce is stored in controlled temperature coolers, in the warehouse. “We lower the temperature to one degree celsius and that keeps (the apples) until Christmas,” notes Euclide, adding, after Christmas apples are kept in CA rooms, which are checked for oxygen and carbon dioxide levels Euclide says there is different methods for different varieties. “When the apple room is full, we bring the oxygen down from 20% to 2%. We let the carbon dioxide rise from a half a percentage to 4% when the room is full of apples.” He says this is what most growers do for long-term storage, and adds, “The apples go right in storage from the trees.” All apples are graded before they go to market, and those that don’t make the grade are turned into apple cider and apple jelly, a spin-off for the orchards. An IPM program helps keep the incidence of disease down in the orchards. Euclide says they have seen some anthracnose and gleosporum and have experts looking at them. The four partners market their apples through Verger Belliveau Orchards, who sell to stores across New Brunswick, and ship to both Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. Picking time means hiring upwards of 40 people and Euclide says their u-pick operation is well known to New Brunswickers. He says if the apple-picking season is rainy, a fine-weather weekend could see as many as 400 cars parked around or near the 60 acres, with eager pickers ready to take home apples fresh from the tree. Having been in business 22 years, the apple growers see a lot of repeat customers, many of them from the United States. “Some people come back every year so we talk and have a visit. They have cottages in the areas and take home a lot of apples with them, especially the Cortland.” Growing 60 acres of apples means being involved with industry organizations. Euclide is the chairman of the Apple Growers of New Brunswick and the New Brunswick Fruit Growers Association. The orchard caters to school tours, and through the industry organizations, brochures have been made available to schools to educate the students “about the growing and marketing of apples.” Despite the fact that this 60-acre orchard is one of the biggest in New Brunswick, Euclide says success is hard to come by. He tells of the winter of 1992 when they lost about 1,200 tress and not because it was a particularly cold winter, but, due in part, to sudden thaws and freezes. The disaster happened when about a foot of snow melted into the ground and the temperature dropped that night to about –30ºC. “Wet ground is not necessarily a good insulation, so the roots froze hard about six inches into the ground.” But, the large orchard has pressed onward. And, if longevity and numbers are a measure of success, Le Fleur du Pommier, Ltd., has made the grade.