Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/40315
IFTA members enjoy a whistle-stop tour through the van Kessel orchard in the Netherlands aboard a bin train. In the front bin are Youngdan Kim (left) and Changho Kim, of Korea, with Dianne Dodd of Ohio and David Peters of Missouri seated behind them. Cold hardiness Dr. Todd Einhorn, pear horticulturist with Oregon State University in Hood River, is studying the cold hardi- ness of a large number of accessions from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Clonal Germplasm Repository in Oregon and will test the most promising in field trials (see "Quinces evaluated for hardiness" on page 19). A rootstock called Quince Eline, which is reputedly cold hardy, has been tested in Poland. Einhorn plans to include Bartlett and d'Anjou trees on Quince Eline root- stocks in a field trial in Oregon starting next year. Verbeek Nursery in Holland expects to begin selling trees on Quince Eline rootstocks in a few years' time. Dr. Terence Robinson, research horti- "You have to be a brave soul to do the pear thing, just because it's a secondary piece of fruit in the culturist at Cornell University, New York, who was also on the IFTA tour, said a dwarfing rootstock is key to successful high-density pear systems. He and colleague Steve Hoying planted some demon- After admiring high-density pear orchards in Europe, Joe Nicholson of New York plans to plant more pears at his orchard—once a hardy, dwarfing rootstock becomes available. supermarket." —Joe Nicholson stration plots at Lake Ontario 15 years ago using the Quince A rootstock, and those trees have survived so far. He also included Swiss Bartlett on Quince A in a more recent systems trial at Geneva, but he has never tested Quince C. In the systems trial, he tested the Pyrus rootstocks Old Home by Farmingdale 97, OHxF.87, Pyrodwarf, and Pyro 2-33, and Quince A with Bartlett, Bosc, and Taylor's Gold. He compared four different training systems: central leader, vertical axis, tall spindle, and super spindle. None of the combinations produced much fruit in the early years, but by the fourth leaf, trees on Pyro 2-33 and Old Home by Farmingdale rootstocks on the super spindle system (with trees on a 2- by 10-foot spacing) produced 60 bins per acre. "We haven't seen that kind of yield even on 50-year-old pear trees in New York," he said. "I think we can figure out how to manage even Pyrus rootstocks at high densities using the same techniques as apples, such as bending branches and root pruning," Robinson said. "But I have to figure out how to get fruit in the second and third year." He believes a precocious quince rootstock is needed to ensure the early returns that make a new planting pencil out. "I am really enthused that pears could be done better than we're doing now," he said. "I think the West Coast has a tremendous potential to modernize their pear industry both by changing their systems to get higher yields but also trying new varieties." Robinson noted that Conference, the predominant variety in Europe, Larry Lutz (right) of Nova Scotia and Phil Schwallier of Michigan take notes at the impressive Jacko van Kessel orchard. www.goodfruit.com has never been produced in the United States, and fireblight-tolerant or resistant varieties developed in North America, such as Harrow Crisp, Harrow Sweet, Sundown, Blake's Pride, Potomac, and Magness, are available for growers to try. • GOOD FRUIT GROWER SEPTEMBER 2011 11