Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/717894
www.goodfruit.com Good Fruit Grower SEPTEMBER 2016 19 Ross CouRtney/Good FRuit GRoweR Rudy Prey bucks the trend among pear growers by training his fruit trees to form arched canopies between rows, as he shows in his Leavenworth, Washington, orchard in June. "He's adapted to his circumstances," Smith said. Prey borrowed many of his ideas from the apple indus- try and applied them to pears, which, unlike apples, lack the true dwarfing rootstocks that allow growers to keep orchards compact. Researchers are trying to develop such rootstocks with little luck so far. Prey didn't want to wait. "I've been doing this for 30 years, and that hasn't happened yet. I doubt it will in my lifetime," said Prey, 51. "These are the rootstocks we have, and I just make them work." He and his father first planted in 1975 with 20-by-10- foot spacing, which raised a few eyebrows among their neighbors used to 20-by-20 or 24-by-24. With each new block, they tightened more and more, getting earlier production and higher yields. His father went as tight as 14-by-6. Prey continued the trend when he took over manage- ment in 1996, maxing out at 14-by-1.5 feet, about 2,000 trees per acre. Since then, he has settled on 14-by-2 or 14-by-2.5 because he noticed little improvement any tighter than that. The steep topography of the Wenatchee R ecoFOG® controls decay through applications. FYSIUM® is a 1-MCP technology that preserves the value of your apples. ecoFOG® is a registered trademark of Pace International LLC. FYSIUM® is a registered trademark of Janssen Pharmaceutica NV, Belgium. T w o T e c h n o l o g i e s , O n e S e r v i c e T e a m Protect Your Fruit Make One Call to Pace ® Please contact a Pace Representative for more information: 1.800.936.6750 Visit www.paceint.com for more information on all our products and services.