Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/418083
50 DECEMBER 2014 GOOD FRUIT GROWER www.goodfruit.com 1997 Bruce Allen YAKIMA, WA 1998 Fleming family ORONDO/QUINCY, WA 1999 Peters family YAKIMA, WA 2000 Dave and George Allan YAKIMA, WA 2001 Gip Redman YAKIMA, WA 2002 Tom Mathison WENATCHEE, WA 2003 Tom Bailey THE DALLES, OR 2004 Warren Morgan, QUINCY, WA 2005 Denny Hayden PASCO, WA GOOD FRUIT GROWERS OF THE YEAR when apple returns were poor. Mike admits he was motivated not just by the need to improve per-acre production and returns, but by his love of trying new things and tendency to think outside the box horticulturally. "It's the excitement of trying something new," Mike said. "But there's also the trep- idation of the mistakes you make when you try something that's not proven. "We were sweating bullets," he recalled. "For this size of operation, which is just short of 400 acres—that was a very expensive, big move. But you have to do what you have to do, and hopefully you can make it work. When you invest huge amounts of money in trellis and trees, you've got to get them to grow and man- age them." Planting in place helped reduce the tree cost, but in effect gave them a large nurs- ery to tend to. "When you have a 40-acre nursery, it's scary," Mike said. "If you don't control the weeds you can have a disaster. Those rootstocks, they're just tiny guys." Planting with thousands of trees per acre felt like a big risk. But not innovating is a greater one, Craig believes. "I think it may be equally, if not more risky not to plant enough trees per acre," he said. "High yields of high quality fruit are what we're after. We're competing for survival. We're quite small in the Washington tree fruit industry, and to be viable in the future we certainly need to be efficient." Learning experience The planting was not only a great success but a big learning experience. They found that trees grow more vigorously in their site than in British Columbia. They learned how to keep the trees in their limited space and avoid shading by using the growth regulator Apogee (prohexadione calcium). They learned that tree rows a quarter of a mile long need posts closer than 50 feet apart, so they put short posts in between. And with a yield potential of over 100 bins per acre, the posts had better be sturdy. They switched to bigger wooden poles in the rows and metal end posts. They learned that the upright spindle system is better suited to Gala than Fuji, which, because of its tip-bear- ing growth habit, has done better on a V trellis system. They've had higher yields from their V plantings, but it's still not clear if the extra establishment and training costs for a formal system are offset by the additional yield, Mike said. They say Del Feigal, manager of Auvil Fruit Company's Vantage ranch, has been a great resource for them, as have their Wilbur-Ellis horticulturists. Craig has found that Gala does well on a spindle system with a spacing of 2-by-9-feet, or a little closer in the row. A row spacing of just under nine feet is the narrowest that can still accommodate the standard 4-foot wide picking bins and tractors. Their aim is to have the trees grow to the top wire in the first two years. With Gala, they can harvest a few apples in the second leaf and have a commercial crop in the third year, whereas with Fuji, it takes a few years for the trees to settle down and produce high-quality fruit. They do blossom thinning by hand and adjust the crop to a specific number of apples per tree during touch-up fruit thinning. Keith Oliver, who manages the neighboring orchard owned by Olsen Brothers, said the O'Briens have figured out how to produce exceptionally high yields and large fruit. "They've been very aggressive about pushing yields and very successful at doing it," he said. "They have a problem that their Galas are too big, which is unheard of. A lot of people can grow big Fujis, but there's not a lot of people who can grow big Galas." Craig said he'd hesitate to plant any orchard at a den- sity of less than 2,000 trees per acre, for fear of not achiev- ing his target yields. "It's very attainable to produce 80 to 100 bins per acre in these new systems," he said. "A hundred bins per acre is not out of the question, and I believe some of the V-trellis systems can exceed that. We have some spindle and V-trellis plantings that are spaced three feet apart where we struggle to get the yields. Today, I would plant the spindle trees two feet part and the V-trellis systems no further than 18 inches apart." Last spring, he planted Gala on a 1-by-10-foot spac- ing. He will install a steel V-trellis and lean the trees at a 73-degree angle in alternate directions and grow them in a spindle fashion with random limb placement. "We've continually placed our trees closer and closer together," Craig said. "We may finally find how close too close is." • "High yields of high quality fruit are what we're after. We're competing for survival. We're quite small in the Washington ǡ ϔǤdz —Craig O'Brien "It's the excitement of trying something new. But there's also the trepidation of the mistakes you make when you try something that's not proven." — Mike O'Brien Mike O'Brien, who farmed with his brother Craig for 40 years, says that a family farm must keep changing with the times in order to survive.