Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/717894
34 SEPTEMBER 2016 Good Fruit Grower www.goodfruit.com VanDeWalle Another mechanical innovation comes from Scott VanDeWalle of Alton, New York. He designed a multi- row pruning platform that runs almost every day, except during harvest, for a wide array of orchard tasks, includ- ing winter pruning, summer suckering, hand-thinning and tying trees. The structure is mounted atop a tractor with an inner platform and two outer platforms hung on metal arms from the center of the machine in a gull-wing arrange- ment. The outer platforms hold one worker each while the central platform holds one worker on each side, plus a driver in the front. The driver raises, lowers and extends the outer platforms and steers the vehicle with a self-cen- tering joystick. "We tried using a radar- or sonar-based steering sys- tem, but we could never get it to work," VanDeWalle said. Next to steering, maintaining proper speed is the key to efficient platform use. "Speed has to vary, depending on how heavy the canopies are and whether crews are pruning or thinning," he said. "Proper speed is neces- sary so the guys aren't standing around looking at each other." Trees are 10.5 to 11 feet tall. VanDeWalle uses a five- wire system and supports it with 12-foot poles. The low- est wire is 2 feet above ground and the highest is at 9.5 feet. The outer platforms can be raised from 12 to 13 feet above ground level and extended outward 12 feet from the central platform. Central platform workers focus efforts from the second wire to the tops. Those on the outside handle the rest. "Our workers can cut four rows at a time as long as they can reach through," he said. Woodworth Another grower using mechanical innovations is Patrick Woodworth of Sandy Knoll Farms near Lyndonville, New York. He began transitioning his old- style, central leader Gala blocks into a tall spindle system in 2015. The trees are planted on Malling 9 rootstocks with 3.5 feet between trees and 14 feet between rows. Woodworth is looking for more sunlight interception and greater labor efficiency as he moves to adopt the tall spindle system. "We want to push production closer to the trunk. Our transition sets the stage for mechanical aid in orchard maintenance and harvesting," he said. To get those improvements, Woodworth uses a mechanical hedger and an automated platform built by J.J. Dagorett's Automated Ag Systems of Moses Lake, Washington. "I can't say enough about how necessary this platform is to our operation," he said. It's a popular piece of equipment in the region. Dagorett sold the same platform to Rod Farrow of Lamont Farms of Waterport, New York, and two more New York growers are getting the same machine before the Gala and Honeycrisp harvest, said Mario Miranda Sazo, a Cornell Cooperative Extension Service Lake Ontario Fruit Program fruit specialist. Woodworth's farm previously had 888 trees per acre. That has increased to 1,980 trees per acre in 2-by-11 spacing for new plantings. New plantings also are going in on five- and six-wire systems, compared with the sin- gle-wire system in existing blocks, where a pole supports each tree. Existing tree growth ranges from 12 to 14 feet high, with branches at 20 to 24 inches and bearing fruit within 18 inches of the tops. Ultimately, his trees will be square- shaped; they will "set the box" with a 44-inch width. Scott VanDeWalle IFTA New York study tour shannon dininny/Good FruiT Grower Scott VanDeWalle (right) designed a multirow pruning platform that runs almost every day, except during harvest, for a wide array of orchard tasks, including winter pruning, summer suckering, hand-thinning and tying trees. Continued from Page 30 "Speed has to vary, depending on how heavy the canopies are and whether crews are pruning or thinning."