Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/37334
This tall-spindle planting has trees spaced 4 feet apart and 12 feet between rows, to accommodate automated equipment. Tree height will be 10 to 11 feet. Dr. Terence Robinson, horticulturist at Cornell University, New York, recommends that growers using the tall-spindle system plant trees with at least ten feathers. Goldy agrees that well-feathered trees are necessary, but said he can make the system work with regular nursery trees, even though they might produce less fruit in the second leaf. And whereas Robinson advocates tying down limbs in the first year, Goldy says he focuses more on limb removal, with limbs that are more than a third of the caliper of the central leader taken out. “It’s easier to get my employees to cut off a branch that’s competing with the central leader than to get them to decide which one they’re going to cut off and which to tie down,” he said. “If there’s any question about competition between the branch and the central [leader], we’re going to cut it off.” When removing a branch, Goldy uses a stub cut so that another branch can grow in its place. “My philosophy is there’s not much of anything that’s permanent in this system, but I don’t want to lose a branching site. I always want something coming back.” Basal dominance Varieties with basal dominance, such as Honeycrisp or SweeTango, tend to produce large branches in the lower part of the tree, and unless these limbs are removed, the cen- tral leader will stop growing, he warned. He compares the central leader to a water pipe: The more large side pipes come off the main pipe, the less water will get to the top. Sim- ilarly, the more strong side branches the tree has, the more difficult it will be to get the tree to grow vertically and have enough bearing surface. Ideally, the central leader should taper nicely up to a height of 10 to 11 feet. “That’s where I see a lot of growers struggle to have bins per acre,” Goldy said. “They missed the ‘tall’ in tall spindle. These systems don’t work well if you don’t get tree height and fill your bearing surface.” With only 1 percent organic matter in the Quincy soil, Goldy pushes the trees to grow until the central leader reaches the top wire, ideally in the second leaf. Then, with nitrogen-sensitive varieties, he stops fertilizing because nitrogen will affect the quality of the fruit. Gala is a variety that allows growers to both fertilize and crop the trees, but that’s not possible with most of the varieties growers are planting today, he said. “You can’t grow fruit and tree at the same time. You have to get to 80 percent of your required fruiting surface before you pull the plug and back off on your fertility and aggressiveness because fruit quality is not going to be good.” He removes fruit in the second leaf and crops them in the third year when the trees have reached the fifth wire. Specific trees that are falling behind and have not reached the top wire continue to be fertilized and have strong limbs pruned out. “If we have to, we’ll remove the crop from those trees until they catch up to the rest of them,” he said. “It’s an un-uniform approach, but it’s how you get uniformity.” Once the trees reach the required height, the focus is on maintaining light bays between the wires and spur renewal, with branches stiffened to support the crop load. There’s no need to worry about caliper after that point, he said. Why such an emphasis on tree height? “High-quality fruit, and lots of it, drive the economic success of the block,” he explained. If he can defruit a block for an extra year to guarantee it fills the space, the orchard will be a profitable venture. If a block is only producing 15 bins per acre when the grower needed 50, it will not pencil out. • www.goodfruit.com GOOD FRUIT GROWER AUGUST 2011 45 geraldine Warner