IFTA Conference Finale Piles On Data, Ideas, Snow
February 16, 2016 
IFTA post-conference tour goers had a snowy walk back to the bus after leaving Leonard Ligon’s Old Mission Peninsula orchard. (Photo credit: Christina Herrick)
In keeping with the precision theme, Jeff Cleveringa kicked off the final day of the conference with an overview of many different technologies he uses in his role Starranch Growers.
He says a lot of new technology, including UAVs can provide a lot of data to growers at the touch of a button, which can be useful.
But he wonders “what do you do with all that data?”
Applying the data, is the more difficult challenge, so growers should keep in mind use before making such a purchase. Cleveringa says UAVs might find another use in providing small pest flare-up precision control sprays. Cleveringa’s presentation dovetailed nicely into Rod Farrows talk on orchard mechanization.
Farrow of Fish Creek Orchards, says growers should not fall into the lure of buying orchard equipment and trying to make it work in their canopy structure.
“It will take a grower 20 years to flip an orchard system to be ready for mechanization,” he says.
Rather, Farrow strongly encourages growers to pick the right site, pick the right system, grow the trees properly, and then add mechanization into the equation.
“Maximize what you’re currently doing, then you’ll be able to add equipment, he says.”
Farrow also says growers need to be able to know what adding equipment will do to the productivity of workers. If an orchard is planted at more than 3 feet wide, it will be obsolete in five years, he says.
Mario Miranda Sazo of Cornell also echoed Farrow’s canopy spacing discussion. For mechanization and platforms, Miranda Sazo says spacings should be 2.5-feet-by-11-feet.
Tom Auvil of the Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission and Karen Lewis of Washington State University talked about mechanization and automation.
Lewis and Auvil updated the crowd on the latest work with the robotic harvester and their studies on mechanical pruning and hedging.
Lewis says there was noticeable shift in tree fruit grower’s mindset when the focus became on revenue generated instead of cost to produce tree fruit.
She says growers need to plant for mechanization, hand thin for the first three years to set the canopy correctly.
“Precision horticulture is a must for automation,” Auvil says.
The trouble with mechanization, Matt Wells of Cornell says, is it’s hard to improve efficient pickers on platforms.
“They’re willing to work harder if they’re making more money,” he says.
The mindset needs to be to improve the waste in harvest and picking, and the result will be savings.
Several presentations focused on sunburn, weather, PGRs, thinning, and 1-MCP. However the biggest surprise came from Randy Beaudry of Michigan State University (MSU).
Namely because his presentation was not on the original schedule handed out. Beaudry joked that the only way to get growers to sit through a presentation on storage disorders was not to include it on the schedule to begin with.
But Beaudry’s presentation focused on the golden ticket for all apple growers – how to reduce storage disorders of Honeycrisp.
Growers have struggled to get the timing right to avoid controlled atmosphere (CA) storage disorders, which plague the variety. Bitter pit, senescent breakdown, soggy breakdown, and soft scald all can occur due to storage.
“CA injury can show up in all cultivars, orchard to orchard storage disorders can show up any time,” he says.
The trouble with fruit is that it’s not necessarily designed for storage, Beaudry says.
“Preconditioning enhances the storage of Honeycrisp,” he says.
Getting Honeycrisp past the first 40 days in CA can reduce injury. In his studies, the most extreme preconditioned Honeycrisp were stored at 77°F to 80°F for 7 days almost eliminated CA disorders.
Snomobiles, snowpants, and hats and scarves were typically seen during the IFTA post-conference tour in the Traverse City area. The only trouble is growers weren’t on a ski resort, they were in tart cherry and apple orchards.
It’s no secret that growers north of the Ridge get more snow and have colder climates. And growers who toured these orchards got a taste of what winter means to those near the 45th parallel.
“It’s the most unique microclimate you can have,” Greg Williams said of his sweet cherry plantings at Williams Orchard in Cedar, MI.
While at Williams Orchard growers got an up close look at Williams’ so-called “Sunday hobby block.” High-density sweet cherries were just a challenge to see if he could get them to grow, Williams says. He has some on UFO and some in Tall Spindle Axe (TSA).
Williams’ sweet cherries are on top of a hill. In August 2015, a storm blew through with 80 mph winds for more than 15 minutes. The TSA blocks tipped over.
Greg Lang, professor of horticulture at Michigan State University (MSU), noticed some of Williams rootstock selections were not getting enough regrowth from renewal cuts. Gisela 3 has good growth early on but as the planting ages, it’s hard to get good vegetative growth on it.
“To build big cherries, you need to focus in the previous year’s nutrition,” Lang says.
Rootstock selection also was a focus at Bill Lentz Farm in Beulah, MI. Growers Bill Lentz and Mike and Mark Evans have a less than ideal production on their SweetTango blocks planted on Bud 9.
Rod Farrow of Fish Creek Orchards, a fellow SweetTango grower, said that pruning the SweetTango on Bud 9 will not help to increase vigor, in fact, the opposite will happen.
“The more cuts you make, the smaller this tree will get,” he said.
As winter winds whipped through Leonard Ligon’s orchard on Old Mission Peninsula, MI, growers’ hearts were warmed to see how precise Ligon Farms Honeycrisp plantings on Pajam2 and RN.29 looked.
Ligon estimates he loses about 5% of his Honeycrisp to bitter pit a year, and thanks to the cold climate, his apples color up enviously well.
Most growers commented that Ligon didn’t have much room for improvement with his production.
One trouble spot for Ligon is pollination. Ligon uses Manchurian and Snowdrift crab apples to pollinate his trees. He also puts bee hives at the center of his orchard so they are surrounded by flowers to pollinate, this is especially important since his orchard is near a road.
Tour-goers also got a chance to tour Smeltzer Orchard Company in Frankfurt, MI; Lutz Farms in Bear Lake, MI; St. Ambrose Cellars in Beulah, MI; VerSnyder Fruit Farms in Lake Leelanau, MI, the Northwest Michigan Horticultural Research Center in Traverse City, MI; and Chateau Chantal in Traverse City.
For more from the IFTA conference, check out Christina Herrick’s Twitter feed at @HerrickAFG.
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