Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/560612
www.goodfruit.com GOOD FRUIT GROWER SEPTEMBER 2015 13 "It's not going to happen every year," he said. "We have to pay attention to getting things thinned earlier. The higher up the bins-per-acre curve you get, the more you have to do nothing wrong to have fruit quality be good, because you're still constrained by the light and the rootstock." Multi-leader The Doorninks' recent plantings include Buckeye Gala on Geneva 935 and 41 rootstocks planted in 2014 on a 3-by-12-foot spacing. The trees are trained with two leaders, making a total of 2,420 per acre, on a V-trellis that is 13 degrees from vertical. The more upright trellis is designed to maximize light distribution and also allows the tighter row spacing. Phil said with a multi-leader system, fewer apples are needed per leader and light penetration is better. Also, less tree training is required, and pruning is simplified, which reduces the labor input. The leaders are trained to the trellis, but the side limbs are not. Phil tries to reduce the vigor in the trees by breaking off larger lateral limbs during the summer. Limbs less than the diameter of an index finger are kept. Breaking the limbs shocks the trees, which shuts down vigor, and also improves light penetration, he said. The goal is to produce 70 to 80 bins per acre at maturity. Platforms The Doorninks use platforms for picking and other orchard operations. Harvest efficiency is increased by 20 to 30 percent when workers don't have to climb up and down ladders and walk back and forth to the bin. Another big advantage is that the workers are less physically tired at the end of the day, Jim said. The tops of the trees are picked from the platform and the bottoms from the ground. Last year, he paid more to those who worked from the platform because no one wanted to do the platform work. "We paid more per bin and they picked more bins per day on the platform and with the bin trailer," he said "But we still had people who wanted to go with their wife and their ladder and go down to the other end and have their own row and pick their own bins," Jim said. "This is a process of education. You can't force a platform into the system. You have to convince your foreman that this is the best thing. Once he has the idea that this is going to be great, he will become adept at using it, and then, at that point, he will convince everybody else this is the greatest thing, and then the crew will go do it. "We bought our way into using the platform," he added. "Now I have to get another platform." At harvest, he has six people on the platform, including one who drives, checks fruit quality, and does some pick- ing. It can accommodate eight workers for other tasks. For example, people on the front might be tying limbs to wires, while other people do suckering or thinning. Doornink said platforms work best where people are able to move around and help each other. Otherwise, the platform can only move at the pace of the slowest person and the others have to wait. • "The higher up the bins-per- acre curve you get, the more you have to do nothing wrong to have fruit quality be good, because you're still constrained by the light and the rootstock." —Jim Doornink w w w. d ave w i l s o n . c o m 800-654-5854 And Everything In-Between We've Got You Covered! Apricots Nectarines Pluots ®