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46 FEBRUARY 1, 2015 Good Fruit Grower www.goodfruit.com changed terminology from calling his orchards "super spindle"—trees planted 11-by-2 feet and 11 feet tall—to calling them "fruiting walls." "The precise fruit count per tree drives the optimal fruit size and yields and maximizes income," he said. "Precision thinning is a key." Farrow uses the carbohydrate model developed by Drs. Alan Lakso and Robinson at Cornell University and uses online weather information and other resources to identify times of carbohydrate stress, during which thin- ning is most effective. But he practices "nibble thinning" to achieve the target number of fruit per tree. That means he thins repeatedly to gradually reduce the number and make expensive hand thinning less necessary. Having more, small trees, as with the super spindle system, is costly because it takes more trees per acre. To keep tree costs down, Farrow operates his own nursery. When he increased tree density from 500 trees per acre to 2,000, orchard establishment costs became a big issue, he said. By growing their own trees, Farrow estimated they reduced tree costs by 40 percent, saving about $4,000 to $5,000 per acre. "If you can't grow your own trees, you can't do the math," he said, adding that they can grow trees cheaper than a nursery because they don't have the same overhead costs. They plant all Bud 9 rootstock. Farrow added that they want everything to grow in the nursery for one year rather than opting for a "plant in place" system. This avoids the need to fi ll in gaps of lost trees. "You can stay in business if you are producing apples pretty cheaply," he said. "But, to thrive, you're striving for the highest yield of target quality, and you're going to spend more money." Farrow says that it's easier to make $10,000 by investing in the right things than it is to save $1,000 by cutting costs. Precise practices Obviously, making each tree perform to its maximum potential means doing things right on all fronts. To con- trol insects and diseases, Farrow uses a tower sprayer with six fan units driven by variable speed hydraulic fans. While rainfall in New York is generally adequate, Farrow has used overhead irrigation for many years and has since converted all the acreage to trickle irrigation. He's still wondering if, in years of extreme water stress, trickle will be adequate to achieve fruit of the target size. He has used soil sampling with a Global Positioning System to map the fertility of his orchards—not to save money, he said, but to provide trees with proper nutrition to avoid quality problems such as bitter pit caused by incorrect potassium and calcium ratios. His orchards have been mapped, but the variable-rate fertilizer application strategy hasn't yet been used. While Farrow doesn't list it as part of precision farming, he believes that having talented labor is important. At the end of 2012, Farrow sold minority interests in his farm to two trusted employees, Jason Woodworth and Jose Iniguez. Iniguez had worked on the farm a long time, and Woodworth worked at another local farm until Farrow hired him—after seeing his ability to deliver quality apples to the packing house at Lake Ontario Fruit. Iniguez and Woodworth now manage all the operations of the farm. Farrow is pleased. "I now have two great part- ners," he said. "The synergy of having three people going in the same direction is tremendous." And the way to keep good people, he says, "is to put goals, like ownership, before them." Farrow is equally complimentary of his harvest crew and hopes the country can settle its immigration issues so all growers continue to have access to these good workers. It keeps U.S. growers ahead of European growers on that score, he said. Farrow has recently refi ned his harvest process. At fi rst he tried a system where all apples were picked from platforms. But, he said, only 15 percent of the apples grow near the tops. He bought a Bandit Xpress system from Automated Ag and uses it for tops harvest only, letting the harvest crew pick most apples from the ground fi rst. "No machine available today can improve the effi ciency of picking from the ground," he said. But getting rid of ladders is a great improvement. Obviously, the three men who run Lamont Fruit Farmers can't treat a million trees as individuals. But the key is to make those million trees as much alike as they can be. That's when trees become the forest that can be managed. • Serving agriculture and industry in Central Washington since 1978 3019 GS Center Road Wenatchee, WA 98801 509-662-1888 /509-662-8183 (fax) www.cascadeanalytical.com 1008 W. Ahtanum Road, #2 Union Gap, WA 98903 509-452-7707/509-452-7773 (fax) 800-545-4206 • Water Quality • Vineyard Nutrition • Wine Quality • Food Safety • Water Quality • Vineyard Nutrition • Wine Quality • Food Safety Your Partner in World Class Wine Production Your Partner in World Class Wine Production Your Partner in World Class Wine Production Toll-Free: 877-552-4828 909-464-1373 • Fax: 909-464-1603 For your nearest dealer, contact: Trellis & Fence Wire Anchor T h i s t r e l l i s a n d f e n c e w i r e a n c h o r s e curely holds wires to end-posts. Insert the wire into and through the wirevise. It automatically locks onto the wire. No tools required. A release tool is available from. • 11-1/2" Length • UV Stabilized (Made to last) • Easy Tie & Re-Tie • Economical GREENTIE™ WIREVISE™ GreenTieWireVisead.qxp_Layout 1 12/1/14 11:25 AM Page 1 MORE ONLINE See "Striving for quality and profi tabil- ity" in the January 15, 2006, Good Fruit Grower magazine in our searchable online archives at www.goodfruit.com.