Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/450509
www.goodfruit.com GOOD FRUIT GROWER FEBRUARY 1, 2015 41 EMSPRING BENEFITS ADVISORS The best strategic decision you can make for your Employee Benefits B E L L E V U E | YA K I M A | S P O K A N E Pat Leahy, MBA pat.leahy@emspring.com 877-550-0088 ext 107 emspring.com net support systems on land they will continually replant as new varieties arrive. So they are building permanent support structures and replacing trees, replanting them in the same rows time after time. Walter Rass, a machinery specialist in the South Tyrol's equivalent of the U.S. Cooperative Extension Service, said that no soil fumigation is allowed in Italy, and land is limited, so growers need to replant trees in the center alley or the same row. If they install perma- nent support structures, the only option is the put trees back in the same row, sometimes in the same hole. Rass showed a video to growers traveling to Italy with the International Tree Fruit Association. He said an Italian company, Vimas, is developing a machine that, in one operation, takes soil from the old row and replaces it with soil from the center of the alley, a trade cleverly made with augers. The company has several machines for tilling and controlling vegetation. You can see them, described in German, at vimas.bz.it. Valente was not the only company showing concrete posts at Interpoma. Another company, Spinazz, sells poles and structures. Not only are growers looking for hail protection, but cherry growers are seeking rain protection, and organic growers—and conventional as well—are looking for insect protection. Spinazz offers what it calls a complete-cover inte- grated system, in which nets cover the entire orchard, including the headlands and service roads. A gate, oper- ated by cables and pulleys, allows the net to be lifted so farming equipment can enter. Spinazz also offers single-row covering systems. In these, there are no overhead nets. Each row of trees, on a trellis, is draped on both sides with netting that keeps out rain and insects. • PHOTOS BY RICHARD LEHNERT/GOOD FRUIT GROWER Apple grower Stefan Klotzner's steep hillside orchard is covered completely with hail net mounted on concrete posts. Wooden posts are never seen in South Tyrolean orchards, where concrete is the material of choice. ONLINE See the Spinazz orchard covering systems at www.spinazzegroup.com. Choose English and videos show con- struction, including the machines that push the tall concrete posts into the ground.