1996 IDFTA Summer Tour
Tuesday, June 24 Orchard Tours
...of The "Ridge" Fruit Production Region Northeast
of Grand Rapids
River Ridge Land Co., Conklin, MI
Don Armock, co-owner of RiverRidge showed us a forty acre high density M.9
block in it's second leaf. At 5 X 14 spacing there are 622 trees per acre.
Over half the cultivars are Imperial Gala with the balance composed of RedCort,
Braeburn, and GingerGold. Don says "toothpicking of small lateral branches
for spreading worked really well for us."
Phil Brown Welding Co., Conklin, MI
Phil Brown, fabricator of custom-built orchard equipment, explains the operation
and features of his inventory. He is well know by commercial fruit growers
across the United States for his design and construction of quality equipment
that makes fruit growing easier.
Win Cowgill, Rutgers Cooperative Extension and Dr. Norman Childers, Professor
Emeritus, and former M.A. Blake Professor of Horticulture at Cook College,
Rutgers, the State University, examine a tower sprayer manufactured by Durand-Wayland
of LaGrange, GA. Childers recently revised his classic textbook, Modern
Fruit Science,while still teaching at the University of Florida, Gainesville,
FL
Virtual Orchard reporters Jeremy Compton, Rutgers Snyder Farm, Win Cowgill
and Jon Clements pose next to Phil Brown's signature tool--the Brownie self-propelled
pruning and harvest aid.
Bruce and Joe Rasch, Kenowa Farms, Sparta, MI
Bruce (L) and Joe (R) Rasch explain their philosophy on using the knip-boom
technique on recently planted Delicious. The brothers felt that by re-heading
these trees at 18-20 inches (the knip-boom") and singling to a single
leader, the result would be a first-leaf block of uniformly well-feathered
Delicious, with wide crotch angles.
Bruce Rasch (L.) and Phil Scwallier, MSU Extension, talk-up a single row,
v-trellis (leaning slender-spindle?) planting with a density of up to1200
trees per acre. After growing a similar system--but in double rows--the
Rasch brothers have concluded that their single row leaning system will
be much easier to manage. Bruce says that by leaning the trees, he achieves
the desired balance between vegetative growth (not too much) and fruit production
(500-700 bu. per acre in 4th leaf) during the early years of orchard establishment.
Leo Dietrich & Sons, Conklin, MI
Mike Dietrich likes Mark rootstock for his site on heavy clay soils. In
growing a verticle axis type system at 6 x 14, they have found Mark to give
the right size tree under their soil, cultivar and management system. Cultivars
include Northern Spy, Gala, Delicious and Jonathan.
Michigan State Cooperative Extension District Agents
From left to right: Bob Tritten, Gary Thornton, Phil Schwallier, Amy
Brown, Dr. Bill Shane
These outstanding agents hosted the IDFTA summer tour and served as our
tour guides for the two days of tours. Thank you for a job well done.
IDFTA