High Demand Drives Tree Fruit Rootstock Shortage
September 8, 2014 
To say that demand for nursery stock is at the highest its been in years would be a slight understatement. Growers seeking to get orders for 2017 may be hard pressed to find all the desirable options of rootstock. Quite simply, the demand for fruit trees and accompanying rootstock is high, and there are only so many roots to go around.
“All tree fruit nurseries’ products are in very high demand,” says Todd Snyder of C&O Nursery in Wenatchee, WA.
Nurseries and rootstock suppliers are striking a delicate balance of planning for year-over-year growth to meet some of the demand, without overextending inventory and manpower.
“We’re limited by the availability of rootstock, the capacity of that we have for handling, storing, and shipping trees, and the human resource element,” Phil Baugher of Adams County Nursery in Aspers, PA, says.
Snyder agrees, noting nurseries have to consider “how to balance expansion of inventory and fruit tree numbers against land needs and warehouse storage needs.”
Steady Growth
“The challenge from the nursery’s perspective is trying to manage growth in terms of how many trees you can produce with the resources you have available to you. It’s very difficult to increase your production by 20% or 30% in an effort to meet the demand,” Baugher says.
He estimates that Adams County Nursery has seen an 8% growth in business yearly for the past 10 years.
Pete Van Well of Van Well Nursery in Wenatchee, WA, says this exponential growth in plantings is the result of a combination of higher density plantings, steady market growth, and favorable fruit prices.
“It seems like now we’ve been getting good prices for the last few years, especially in Washington State, so that is really fueling the demand,” he says.
For Van Well, this cautious growth is mindful of a time when nurseries were left with trees.
“Not too long ago we remember burning lots of trees. As you grow, you don’t want to be caught holding the bag, you want to grow proportionately every year, to take care of the risk,” he says. “Because if something were to hit all of a sudden, you don’t want to end up having invested all this money on product you can’t sell. Everybody’s trying to grow — at least all the major nurseries — at a rate that reduces our risk, but still trying to put more product out.”
Labor Another Issue
Van Well expects labor to be a continual problem for the nursery industry. Although more elements of tree fruit growing and packing are becoming mechanized, that’s just not the case for the beginning part of the process. From the moment they are budded until they make their way to your orchard, trees are cared for by hand.
“Every tree has to be grafted so every bud is set by hand, every bud is tied in by hand. Trees are suckered by hand, people go through with hoes to hoe the trees because we don’t want any weed spray in there,” he says. “Every step of the way it’s labor intensive. They’re all graded by hand, they’re sorted by hand, they’re bundled and packed by hand.”
Hoping For 2017 Trees?
Growers still hoping to get orders in for 2017 could run into some trouble.
“We just really can’t even consider taking on new accounts right now. We just don’t have the roots to bud on to. The demand is such that you can’t increase your rootstock order even if you want to expand your operation by 200,000 or 300,000 trees,” Baugher says.
Availability for 2017 depends on what type of rootstock you’re looking to plant on.
“Especially if it’s something new or exciting, and it’s got a real high-potential demand like maybe a Geneva rootstock, we’re probably already out of what we’ll probably be able to grow on Geneva for 2017,” Van Well says.
C&O is sold out for the 2015 season, and also for 2016.
“We are taking orders for delivery spring 2017 in certain instances,” Snyder says. “All of the Geneva series of apple understocks are in the ‘highest’ demand, followed closely by any 9-size root.”
It’s much the same for Adams County Nursery.
“Right now on our pre-bud contract business, we’re sold out through 2017,” Baugher says. “Some of that is because of this [new early Honeycrisp variety].” (For more on new offerings, see the “What’s New” sidebar)
Work With Nurseries
Baugher suggests growers work with a nursery to reserve rootstock well ahead of when it’s needed.
“You don’t need to make a decision on what to bud on the rootstock until the July before they’re budded. If you don’t have the roots reserved with a nursery, work a year ahead of that,” he says.
Baugher also suggests establishing a relationship with a nursery or nurseries to get on a schedule, especially for growers with large orders. This way the rootstock of your choice is secured.
“Reserve the roots for several years out and try to get on a schedule where you’re planting about the same number of trees every year. Whether that’s replacing orchard at a rate of 10% of your orchard per year or 5% of your acreage every year,” he says.
Scheduling not only helps you plan ahead and consistently get the rootstocks you want, but it helps the nursery plan ahead.
“We have customers that have been getting, for instance, 10,000 or 15,000 trees a year every year for the past five or six years,” he says. “We have their rootstocks reserved out for the next three years. Until they change that, we will reserve their roots out for a couple of years.”
Get Your Shopping List Together
“People need to be aware they need to get in line and get their orders in. I know it’s hard to do because they’re planning years out ahead, but then for the nurseries, we all have to plan two years ahead,” Van Well says. “If you’re going to put in a new block, everybody plans well ahead.”
The easy answer for growers looking to avoid being shut out of prime rootstocks is to plan ahead. Growers are more mindful of new blocks, Van Well says. However, the maintenance and replacement orders sometimes get put on the back burner.
“There’s going to be a tremendous pear shortage this year and it’s going to be the bread and butter [varieties], it’s not going to be the brand new stuff,” he says. “There’s a shortage from the rootstock producers all the way through the finished tree nurseries.”
Van Well encourages growers to develop a grocery list of tree needs, including pollinators and all the popular varieties that need to be replaced yearly.
“Some guys are really good, they come in and pick up the trees in the spring, and say ‘I need this many Anjous, I need this many Bartletts, I need this many Bosc,’ because they know they’re going to have that many replacements. For those guys, I would recommend when they do pick up their trees in the spring, they get these grocery lists in for stuff they know they’re going to need for replacement.”
What’s New
New varieties and rootstocks are also on the horizon for nurseries. This helps fan the flames of demand, as growers want to get their hands on the latest and greatest.
Phil Baugher of Adams County Nursery in Aspers, PA, says there has been a great demand for pears in the East. Fire blight nearly put an end to the market, but there are some new dwarfing and fire-blight resistant varieties.
“A lot of growers who do farmers market want to add pears to their diversity of products. We’ve had a significant increase in the demand for pears,” he says.
That’s not the only thing that Adams County is seeing a demand for.
“Honeycrisp has created a tremendous buzz in our industry. We’ve launched a new apple variety, a new selection of Honeycrisp that picks three weeks before original Honeycrisp,” says Baugher. “[The new selection] was mature here on Aug. 15, a few days later than the past years — we’re having a little bit of a late season.”
Baugher says the patent has been approved and the nursery is growing a significant amount of trees.
Burchell Nursery in Oakdale CA, is releasing a new peach/almond hybrid rootstock that is drought and salt tolerant for both almonds and stone fruit called Cornerstone. Tom Burchell says he’s also seen good results with Guardia peach rootstock from Clemson University for both peaches and almonds.
“A recent study by the University of California-Davis ranked Cornerstone the most drought and salt tolerant rootstock available,” he says. “This will be a real winner for California growers planting during the current drought.”
Van Well Nursery is introducing a new red Cripp’s Pink sport called Lady In Red, and the nursery is licensed for Crimson Crisp, which is a scab-reistant variety from Purdue University. It is also offering Red Rubens, an Italian apple from the International New-Varieties Network (INN).
“It’s been voted several times the tastiest apple in Britain. We’re going to be offering it along with C&O and Willow Drive nurseries in the U.S.,” Van Well says.
Van Well is also introducing the Rock Island Fuji, a high-coloring apple strain, and a new South African early yellow-skinned plum called Honeystar.
The nursery is working with Adams County nursery on some future peaches from Rutgers and with INN for some future pear offerings.
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