Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/657340
38 APRIL 1, 2016 GOOD FRUIT GROWER www.goodfruit.com G rowers in the Eastern United States, with rain aplenty, once thought irri- gation was just for their arid colleagues out West. Not any more. Today, with the push for high-density, precision orchards on shallower roots, growers in Michigan, New York and Pennsylvania more and more consider irrigation a must. "Technically, it's not needed in the East, but if you want to be the best and minimize risk, it is," said Brett Anderson of Anderson Brothers Orchards in Sparta, Michigan. Irrigation was a hot topic at the International Fruit Tree Association conference in February in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Several speakers called water control a crucial tool in spite of ample precipitation. "We don't grow fruit in a desert," Anderson told growers at the conference. For example, Grand Rapids receives 37 inches of rain every year. The desert hills of Wenatchee, Washington, get only 9 inches. But if growers want to bump fruit qual- ity from fancy to extra fancy and increase their size, irrigation will pay off quickly in the East, Anderson said. A drip irrigation system may cost an average of $2,000 per acre, but just a 10 percent boost in yield could mean $1,000 extra in profi t per acre in one year alone, he said. He recalls in 2008, the year after a dry summer, talking with consulting custom- ers who complained their crop didn't set as well as their neighbors. By and large, those customers lacked irrigation. "The one factor I saw was irrigation," he said. Researchers in the East have been try- ing to convince growers of the necessity of irrigation for decades, said Ron Perry, professor of horticulture at Michigan State University. IFTA Michigan conference Irrigation becomes crucial tool even in well-watered East. by Ross Courtney Changing ideas about WATER Shown a few months after it was planted in the spring of 2013, this high-density tall spindle orchard near Grand Rapids, Michigan, uses a drip-irrigation system. RICHARD LEHNERT/GOOD FRUIT GROWER