On The Road With The International Fruit Tree Association Study Tour To Italy Part 1 [Slideshow]

By Win Cowgill|November 19, 2014

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Terence Robinson of Cornell University and Larry Lutz, past president IFTA and of Scotian Gold enjoy a walking tour of Venice with IFTA on Sunday, Nov. 16. (Photo credit: Win Cowgill)
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Gunther Mahlknecht, Director of GRIBA, showed us how they grow some of the finest apple trees in the world. In the photo below Gunther shows us the extremely high quality 1-year-old Red Velox apple tree on M9337 rootstock. Note the large number of long good-sized feathers. (Photo credit: Win Cowgill)
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IFTA growers crowd around the nursery stock to learn from Gunther Mahlknecht how they produce their trees. IFTA members are never shy in peppering our hosts with questions! (Photo credit: Win Cowgill)
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A perfect golden delicious tree on M.9337, branched at GRIBA’s nursery. This would be graded a 7+ tree with seven feathers over 30 centimeters long, well-spaced with good angles. The IFTA tour goers were complimentary of the quality of the 1-year-old nursery trees. (Photo credit: Win Cowgill)
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Phil Schwallier, Michigan State University Extension and IFTA president, Kurt Werth, Interpoma congress organizer who also coordinated the Bolzano tour, and Gunther Mahlknecht, Director of GRIBA pose for a photo at the lunch stop and educational nursery program at "Locanda Le Muse" (Venetian Villa) after touring GRIBA nursery in the Verona Area. (Photo credit: Win Cowgill)
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Terence Robinson of Cornell University (left) and Phil Schwallier, of Michigan State University and IFTA president (center), recognize the Italian speakers who presented to the group all day Tuesday, Nov. 18, in traditional IFTA conference style with an IFTA certificate of recognition and IFTA hats! Robinson (left) and Schwallier (center) present IFTA hats to (from left) Markus Bradlwarter, SK Südtirol, South Tyrol Variety Innovation Consortium; Kurt Werth, Interpoma congress organizer; Michael Oerhuber of the Laimburg Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry; Robert Wiedmer, South Tyrol Fruit and Grape Cultivation Consultancy Center coordinator; Walter Rass of South Tyrol Fruit and Grape Cultivation Consultancy Center; and Gerhard Dichgans, director of the Consortium VOG South Tyrol. (Photo credit: Win Cowgill)

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One hundred and fifty fruit growers, extension workers, researchers and industry workers answered the call of International Fruit Tree Association to travel and study this month with Cornell University’s Terence Robinson in Italy.

Our goal for this trip is to study apple production in one of the most concentrated fruit growing areas of the world, the South Tyrol region of Italy. With 18,400 Hectares (1 HA = 2.47 acres) of production, South Tyrol is the largest apple production area in Italy as well as the entire European Union (EU). More than 5,000 farmers produce apples in this unique contiguous region, nestled in two long narrow valleys with mountains on both sides.

We trip-goers all met in Venice, Italy Saturday night, Nov. 15 and had a warm welcoming dinner. After decompressing from a day and half of international travel by touring the magnificent city of Venice, we departed Monday for an apple nursery tour hosted by GRIBA tree nursery in Isola della Scala (south of Vernona).

The secret to the outstanding apple production in terms of yield and quality is the starting unit, the nursery tree. In visiting one of GRIBA’s nursery fields, we all saw first hand the quality of the apple trees, almost ready to be dug for planting in 2015.