Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/401644
www.goodfruit.com GOOD FRUIT GROWER NOVEMBER 2014 15 Willow Drive Nursery, Inc. Call Toll Free: 1-888-548-7337 3539 Road 5 NW, Ephrata, WA 98823, www.willowdrive.com Ambrosia™ Blondee™ Cameo® brand Chrisolyn™ Jonathan Granny Smith Jonastar™ Jonagold Pink Lady® Brand RubyMac® Snowsweet® Spartan Zestar!® Gala: Buckeye® Gala Ultima Gala® Early Fuji: Morning Mist™ Rising Sun® Braeburn: Kumeu Crimson® Mariri Red™ Additional Varieties Brookfield ® Gala (Baigent CV) From New Zealand we bring you Brookfield, ® the ultimate striped Gala.The bold red stripe over its red background is the obvious improvement. The apple's early color permits proper harvest timing for best storage maturity, flavor retention, and customer satisfaction. USPP# 10,016 Kootenay TM This Lapins mutation was discovered in Creston, B.C. Kootenay TM matures at Sweetheart timing, but more closely resembles the Lapins fruit. The fruit is dark red with red flesh, and is self-fertile. Willow Drive recommends Kootenay TM for testing at this time. USPP# 18,849 Honeycrisp Introduced in 1991, Honeycrisp is creating quite an intere st wi th c omm erc i a l g rower s . Th e we l l- balanced, sub-acid flavor combined with a crisp, juicy texture make for an enjoyable eating experience. Aztec Fuji ® DT2 variety Aztec Fuji ® is a high colored Fuji sport from New Zealand. It has the sweet juicy flavor, crisp texture and harvest maturity of standard Fuji. Aztec is a blush type and observations show it to be one of the highest coloring Fuji sports to date. Aztec Fuji® is a protected trademark of Waimea Variety Management Ltd. Early Robin ® This early Rainier-type cherry matures 7-10 days before standard Rainier. Early Robin ® is mild in flavor and medium to large in size. Early Robin ® requires a pollinizer but Van should not be used. USPP#13,951 Willow Drive Nursery Call Now for Availability Clemson University to Washington State University to head fruit extension work, worked under Flore on the "tree compensation to damage" work. Damage thresholds Dr. Paolo Sabbatini, who now works with grapes at Michigan State, worked under Flore to find how leaf stomata work to limit carbon dioxide intake. Other grad students include Dr. Carl Sams, now on the faculty at the Univer- sity of Tennessee, and Dr. Frank Kappel, who breeds cherries in British Columbia. Flore and his students were able to determine thresholds. If light is reduced to less than 10 percent of full light, wood on the trees will die. Light is needed inside canopies for fl ower bud development. Tree trunks can tolerate a lot of dam- age. They found that out by girdling trees, which involves removing portions of the bark. It takes loss of bark three-fourths of the way around the tree before shoot growth is reduced and some trees die, Flore said. Trees need to retain about 70 percent of their foliage as they enter the fall sea- son, or winter hardiness can be reduced. By punching holes into leaves and study- ing their photosynthetic ability, they found no effect at all at 20 percent area removal if tissue was lost between the veins, as with disease or leaf miner dam- age. However, photosynthesis could be affected with less area removed if veins were damaged, as by chewing insects. Growers are now advised to keep their fungicide program going even after the fruit has been harvested to keep foliage healthy, at least until September. They found the threshold for mite damage and stated it in mite-days. In the shorter season around Traverse City, trees can tolerate about 1,000 mite- days per leaf. Father south in southwest Michigan, they can tolerate 1,500. Trees will reduce photosynthesis if the crop is light. They reduce photosynthesis when "the sinks are full." They found that Montmorency cherry trees need two to four leaves per fruit to produce a quality crop. Effects of not enough leaves, or foliage damage, are small fruit size, less red color, lower sugar and soluble solids, and greater fruit removal force. Healthy foliage affects winter har- diness. Trees in high vigor, as rated by shoot growth longer than eight inches, were hardy to -23˚F, but only to -15°F if they were in low vigor, with less than four inches of growth. Over the years, Flore and his students used whole-tree balloon chambers, her- bicides, and hole punches to simulate foliage damage, and isotopes of carbon to study the sinks for carbon dioxide. All of these studies could result in sav- ings to growers if they knew when they needed to spray for insects, mites, and diseases and when enough was enough. "It doesn't have to be pristine," he said. • Read more online: Flore's tart cherry physiology studies meshed with work in other fruits. Read the exclusive online story "An era of physiological discovery" at bit.ly/1nl35JT.