Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/418083
www.goodfruit.com GOOD FRUIT GROWER DECEMBER 2014 63 Association. Its first meeting was in an apple storage on his farm. As a testament to IFTA's success, the word dwarf was dropped from the name a few years ago; all apple trees are now dwarf trees. "When I got out of college, I knew what I wanted to do," Heuser said. "I had studied horticulture, and I was interested in the study of the dwarfing of fruit trees. It was a new idea in those days. My major professor at Michigan State had gotten me into that. So I came home with that as one of my goals. Dad sort of let me have free rein. I worked into the management and the decision-making. The business was growing pretty rapidly." During his career, Heuser introduced 70 patented or trademarked varieties, 23 of them while at Hilltop and 47 through International Plant Management. Some of the varieties came from breeders. Heuser worked with Cornell University stone fruit breeder, Bob Andersen, in releasing 12 plum, sweet cherry, and tart cherry varieties, including the highly regarded BlackPearl sweet cherry. He works with Randy and Annette Bjorge at Fruit Acres in bringing their Stellar Series peaches to market. But his big effort has been in working with growers who discover interesting new trees in their orchards— seedlings like Paulared, whole tree or limb mutations like RubyMac, Blondee, Redchief Red Delicious, or Smoothee Golden Delicious. In most cases, the out- standing feature of a new sport is its redness or its ability to color in warmer climates. In many cases, the sport became the most-planted strain of the variety. He worked with Bernard Thome on RubyMac and Harold Thome on sports of IdaRed, Jonathan, and Empire. He also works with the Simmons Family at Peace Valley Orchards on Buckeye Gala, and dozens of other variety discoverers. Wanda does all the patent applications. "I have written all the patents except one," Wanda said. "Keeping records is a huge part of the task." Wally Heuser built a special relationship with the Gisela cherry rootstock people in Germany and has the exclusive North American rights to Gisela. "When Cornell University discontinued its sweet cherry breeding program, we took the whole seedling block," Heuser said. "We have the only surviving trees from that test orchard, and, at this point, we've released 10 or 12." Road to royalty With varieties discovered by growers, the general pro- cess starts when a grower finds a mutation in a tree or a seedling tree in the orchard and contacts International Plant Management, Wanda explained. If it looks inter- esting, she said, the grower and IPM may enter into a ten-year contract, with IPM to manage and develop the variety. That requires testing it for its genetic stability and uniqueness and growing it at several locations to test its performance in different regions. "We establish scionwood blocks in key locations, and inspect and maintain these sources to establish trueness to type and variety," Wanda said. If it looks promising, IPM will arrange to have budwood cleaned and certified free of viruses at the National Clean Plant Network in Prosser, Washington. IPM maintains a virus-free scion wood block in Michigan. The next steps are to apply for plant patent and trade- mark protection, establish royalty rates, and license nurs- eries to grow the trees. Clean budwood is made available to nurseries, trees are sold to growers, and royalties are collected and distributed. A key part of the program is promotion and market- ing—letting growers know about the new strains and why they should plant them. Both Summit Sales and International Plant Management have booths at several horticultural shows each year, and they participate in or sponsor showcase meetings to let would-be growers see and taste plums, cherries, peaches, and apples. For all of these services, IPM gets a share of the royalty earnings. After a lifetime of working with fruit trees, Heuser intends to pay more attention to his other plants. His nine-acre yard is landscaped with oaks, maples, and other forest trees, flowers like dahlias and hostas, of which he has huge collections, and increasingly with evergreens. Winter is easier to take when trees stay green—something his fruit trees never did. It's a big project involving himself and three gardeners. • "When I got out of college, I knew what I wanted to do. I had studied horticulture, and I was interested in the ϔ of fruit trees. It was a new idea in those days. —Wally Heuser CARRIER TRANSPORTS, INC. CARRIER TRANSPORTS, INC. CARRIER TRANSPORTS, INC. QUALIT Y FRUIT DESERVES A QUALIT Y RIDE! 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