Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/386317
www.goodfruit.com GOOD FRUIT GROWER OCTOBER 2014 23 - Rozol paraffi nized pellets are ideal for wet conditions. - For use after Fall harvest, and before new Spring growth. - Perfect for use during snow melt-offs. Voles gnaw on tree trunks and roots (girdling) causing GLVUXSWLRQRIWKHWUHH¶VÀRZRIQXWULHQWVDQGZDWHU OUTSTANDING VOLE CONTROL Learn More Protect Your Orchard Ph: 888-331-7900 • www.liphatech.com Meadow vole. High-Density Orchards Require Intensive Vole Management with bloom, increasing the risk of fi reblight, especially in young orchards. Musacchi said there is no diffi culty setting a crop. "The strange and positive thing is the fruit singles out by itself—it's natural—so there's not much need for hand thinning." It has a tendency to produce blind wood. Musacchi has found tipping at green tip to be a successful strategy for managing it. Bending branches down to horizontal without tipping only increases the problem, he warned. Postharvest Ines Hanrahan, research scientist with the Washing- ton Tree Fruit Research Commission, said WA 38, which is a cross of Enterprise and Honeycrisp, matures at about the same time as Red Delicious, in late September. It's a fairly large apple. Fruit from fi ve-year-old test trees in Quincy last year peaked on size 72 with a crop equivalent to 70 bins per acre. It's also fi rm and sweet, but with a relatively high acid level. Hanrahan said at maturity fi rm- ness can be 20 pounds, with a Brix level above 13 and acidity in the 0.7 to 0.8 percent range. It should be a one- pick variety, and indications are that it will have a wide picking window for long-term storage—perhaps as long as a week in some cases. "It's totally possible to store this fruit in regular atmo- sphere for six months," Hanrahan said. Tests show that it's not necessary to treat WA 38 with MCP. This should make the variety interesting to organic producers, who can't use MCP. What should make it interesting to all growers is its apparent lack of defects. One of the few postharvest problems that's been noticed is some greasiness, mainly in fruit of advanced maturity not treated with MCP. Sunburn can be managed with evaporative cooling, Hanrahan said. There have been some stem punctures, a problem attributed to the large size of the fruit from young trees. Scald has never been seen, even on rela- tively immature fruit. So far, only a small volume of fruit has been available for testing This year, there will be suffi cient volume from test sites to run the apples across a commercial packing line and analyze packouts, Hanrahan said. • PHOTO BY TJ MULLINAX 017 plant