Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/283151
44 APRIL 1, 2014 GOOD FRUIT GROWER www.goodfruit.com between—that's how you prune and that's how you train." He estimates training costs for the fi rst couple of years at about $1,000 per acre and expects to see a payback on the planting by year seven if production goals are met. Verbrugge, who farms in the Royal City and Othello areas as well as Wapato, said he plans to keep planting angled systems, even though vertical systems might be more suited to mechanization. He's tried using platforms for thinning and pruning, but fi nds that individuals on ladders can get the job done more quickly because a platform with six people on it can only move as fast as the slowest worker. When a block has a crop of 80 to 100 bins per acre, there is no short- age of people wanting to pick it, even from ladders, he said. His next planting will be a Tatura system angled 15 degrees from vertical with trees planted 22 inches apart and 13 feet between rows. Open V Another angled-system fan is Bruce Allen, president of the growing and packing operation Columbia Reach in Yakima, Washington. He began switching from a spindle system to an open V system about 20 years ago because he found angled canopies to be more productive. He settled on a system where each tree has two leaders with one trained to either side of the V. The rows are 13 feet apart, and he tries to keep four feet of open space at the top. The main reason for the high productivity of the V is the greater canopy volume compared with a fruiting wall, for example. In 2014, he will plant formal and informal Vs, but also some vertical plantings, which are more accessible and provide more opportunity for mechanical aids. "We've fi ddled around with various mechanical assists for probably ten to fi fteen years," Allen said. "We've had a lot of problems fi nding ones that fi t our particular system because our angled V is fairly low, with tight spacing. The machines weren't designed to fi t it," he said. "I prefer the V, but I'm experimenting with the vertical system because I think it might be easier to mechanize and I think the tradeoff is prob- ably slightly lower yields, but I might gain that back in more effi cient production practices." Challenge Robinson said growers can be successful with many different systems. "You have to fi nd a system you like," he said. When he's made head-to-head comparisons of angled and vertical systems, as long as the light interception is equivalent, the yields are the same, he said. "I just think I can do it cheaper and in a less complicated way in a vertical system." In his opinion, the only reason to plant a V system would be to reduce sunburn and that's not something he's been able to study since sunburn is not a problem in New York. He challenged Washington researchers to prove, in a long-term study, that a V system is more productive with the same variety on the same rootstock and with comparable light interception. • Bruce Allen prefers an angled system because of its higher productivity, but recognizes the need to use systems that accommodate new technology. "I prefer the V, but I'm experimenting with the vertical system." —Bruce Allen Honeycrisp grown on two different systems: On the left is a V system at Bruce Allen's orchard in Yakima, and on the right is an upright system at Richard Thomason's orchard at Brewster, Washington. PHOTO ON LEFT BY TJ MULLINAX; PHOTO ON RIGHT BY GERALDINE WARNER