Weaver’s
Orchard in Morgantown, Pa., saw the benefits of using Haygrove high
tunnels to cover 240 sweet cherry trees – 6/10 of an acre –
this past year.
“Protection from excessive rain was a big benefit for us last
year,” said Ed Weaver, orchard owner. “We lost as much
as 70 percent of our cherry crop outside the tunnels to cracking.
“We were also able to put bird netting over the open lower sides
and ends of the tunnels. Because we didn’t have the risk of
cracking from the rain or of bird predation, we were able to allow
the cherries to ripen to a fuller maturity. Consequently, the cherries
we picked in the tunnels were larger in size, and they also had a
higher sugar content,” Weaver said.
A lot of the cherries at Weaver’s Orchard are sold as pick-your-own.
“With the tunnels, customers were able to pick on rainy days,”
Weaver said.
And of course, the tunnels offered frost protection. Using the tunnels
cut spray costs, too, since the trees stayed dry. Weaver’s Orchard
is one of the first operations in the country to use Haygrove high
tunnels with cherry trees.
Haygrove tunnels are on legs and have the bottom 4-1/2 feet of the
sides of the tunnel open. In cold weather, plastic can be attached
to cover the legs, but as the weather warms, with that 4-1/2 feet
of open space, the tunnels are self-ventilating.
“There’s not much need to vent the tunnels by putting
the sides up and down,” Weaver said. “There’s only
about an eight-degree daytime difference between the inside of the
tunnel and the outside temperature.”
The Weavers didn’t get the plastic on until the middle of May.
Now that the structures are in place and they’ve had experience
with the tunnels, they would like to use them to advance the bloom
date next year.
“We can’t cover the tunnels too early, because the structures
can’t handle more than 3 to 4 inches of snow,” he said.
“The tunnels are affordable for large acreages because they
don’t have a really heavy structure. But if we put on the plastic
by the 20th of March, we hope to be able to get a week’s advance
in our bloom date.”
To pollinate the blossoms at that early date, Weaver said he plans
to use bumblebees.
“Growers in England are using bumblebees successfully to pollinate
cherries in high tunnels,” he said.
Cherries fit nicely into Weaver’s Orchard’s pick-your-own
set-up.
“There’s a good demand for pick-your-own cherries and
they also overlap with pick-your-own strawberries, as the strawberry
season is finishing up, and then overlap with the beginning of pick-your-own
raspberries,” he said. “So we have more than one crop
at a time to attract pickers to the orchard.”
Weaver’s Orchard customers prefer the largest, darkest varieties
of sweet cherries: Hartland and Hedelfingen. The operation also has
Summit, Rainier and Sweetheart trees under plastic. All cherry trees
are on Gisela-5 dwarfing rootstocks.
“For our purposes, this rootstock produces trees up to 12 feet
high,” Weaver said. “Our trees are 7 to 8 years old, and
we’re pleased so far. The key with Gisela-5 rootstocks is aggressive
pruning, so that the trees have new, vigorous growth each year.”
The Weavers let customers pick from the lower branches and then bring
ladders in, and employees pick the tops of the trees.
There has been no shortage of customers for their pick-your-own cherries.
The operation is able to charge as high a price for their pick-your-own
fruit as people would have to pay for Western cherries.
“Our customers are getting the cherries fresh, they know that
they are locally grown, and they enjoy the experience of picking their
own fruit,” Weaver said.
After their success with their first use of Haygrove high tunnels,
Weaver plans to expand their use next spring.
“We’re thinking about covering more cherries next spring,
and we also plan on trying the tunnels over our 2/3 acre of blueberries,”
he said. “The tunnels should raise temperatures enough to increase
the size and sugar content of our blueberry crop. We’re also
planning to do a test plot with red raspberries.”
The orchard has three acres of blackberries and black and red raspberries,
75 percent of which are sold through pick-your-own.
“The structures should easily last 15 years,” Weaver said,
“and the company recommends replacing the plastic every three
years.
“This year, with a 70 percent loss of cherries outside the tunnels
due to cracking, the tunnels were very valuable. I’d say it
would take four to five years for a tunnel to pay for itself.”
When the tunnels were being constructed last spring, Weaver said the
company came out and helped them get all the legs in. They also helped
the Weavers put up the first bay. Weaver’s Orchard currently
has three bays.
“The Haygrove company has a good support system. Our main challenge
was our very rocky soil. We had to use a jackhammer to do a pilot
hole before they could augur the legs into the ground, which was hard
work,” Weaver said.
When the cherry and berry season is over, Weaver’s Orchard begins
selling pick-your-own peaches on Saturdays only. Some early varieties,
which tend to be small, are blossom-thinned by hand, first with a
hand-held brush, then by workers who remove more of the excess blossoms.
“We have six Flamin’ Fury varieties,” Weaver said.
“The two I like best are 24-007 and 20-007. No. 23 looks pretty
good too, and 7A isn’t bad, although I’d like to see a
better size. And I’m pretty happy with PF1, the first of the
season.”
Weaver’s Orchard can store 10,000 bushels of apples. About one-third
of their apple crop is sold through their farm market.
To attract customers to the market all winter long, market manager
Dwayne Musser said that they carry a full line of fruit and produce
all year long.
“We strive to buy high quality. Our object is not to be the
cheapest, but to have the best quality. A lot of our customers shop
at the grocery store for groceries, but come out here to get their
fruit and produce,” he said.
To maintain produce quality, the display tables in the market are
on wheels, and can be quickly covered and wheeled into the cooler
at night.
The operation is in its second year with a UV treating system for
cider.
“The machine cost a lot up front,” Musser said, “but
it’s very inexpensive to use and ensures a safe product. We
get a lot of comments on the quality of our cider.”
Natural cheeses, cut off a big block, other dairy products, an in-market
bakery and fruit and vegetable gift baskets also draw customers to
the market all year.
“We started taking credit cards several years ago as a convenience
to our customers, and now a high percentage of our sales are paid
for with credit cards,” Musser said.
“We strive to be not just a stop along the way, but a destination
by offering entertainment and activities for the children as well
as pick-your-own,” he added.
