Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/61297
Platforms can be used to advantage in tall spindle orchards. —Plant highly feathered trees and manage them, with no pruning but by bending and tying down lateral branches (feathers) in the first year, so they will bear fruit already in the second leaf. —Choose the right varieties. "The price you receive for your fruit is more important than any consideration of orchard design," he said. Right varieties While Robinson believes that the best profits for grow- ers will come from growing apples for the fresh market, he acknowledged that in the Northeast, half or more of all apples are grown for processing, and many growers plan to continue to plant and grow blocks of apples especially for processing. Still, he said, fresh fruit is more profitable by about five orders of magnitude than fruit grown for processing. Some varieties can go for either fresh or processing, and anybody growing for processing should plant some fruit varieties that can go fresh, he said. Nonetheless, he has two separate lists of apples to grow, depending on the intended market. To minimize risk, he said, plant the best fresh-market "I'm convinced that every apple grower should be planting some new orchards every year." —Terence Robinson varieties on 50 percent of new orchards. For New York growers, these solid performers include red strains of Gala like Brookfield; red strains of McIntosh like LindaMac, RubyMac, Snappy, and Acey Mac; Empire and Cortland, espe- cially the strains that do well when treated with SmartFresh (1-MCP); the best red strains of Red Delicious; and the Smoothee or Reinders strains of Golden Delicious. To generate high returns, plant 40 percent to new varieties that have been selling at high prices. These include Honeycrisp; the Rubinstar, DeCoster and Red Prince strains of Jonagold; Golden Supreme; the early strains of Fuji like September Wonder, Auvil Early, and Beni Shogun; the full-season strains of Fuji like Aztec, Kiku Fubrax, Top Export, and Suprema; and Cameo. Gamble for very high returns on a small acreage, 10 percent, he said. In New York, where in-state growers have access to the new Cornell varieties named New York 1 and New York 2, these should be planted in that "gambling on the future" category. It also includes, for growers anywhere, the club varieties Ambrosia, Piñata, Jazz, Envy, Pacific Rose, Blondee, and SweeTango. In the processing category, the solid-performing 50 percent in New York include Idared, Jonagold, McIntosh, Cortland, Crispin, and Rome. "You have additional ones here," he told the Mid-Atlantic growers. Those in the 40 percent category that processors pay a premium for include Autumn Crisp and Granny Smith. New York 2, which was bred by Cornell as a dual-purpose apple, fits into the gambling- 10-percent category for a processing apple. • GOOD FRUIT GROWER APRIL 15, 2012 25 photos by richard lehnert