Innovation And Experimentation Highlights Of New York Orchard Tour
August 16, 2013 
This year’s Wayne County Fruitgrower Tour focused on innovation in the orchard and packinghouse. The annual event is held in August in Wayne County, NY, and highlights current topics for New York apple growers.
A caravan of attendees from England, New Zealand, Michigan, and Washington, as well as counterparts from New York traveled from stop to stop to hear the latest on orchard pruning and harvesting, biennial varieties, and controlling powdery mildew in susceptible apple varieties.
to view a photo slideshow of the event.
At Empire Fruit Growers in Wolcott, NY, attendees were led on a tour of the state-of-the-art apple packing line by Rich Leous, general manager, and Rachel Thompkins, office manager.
for a video tour of Empire Fruit Grower’s facility.
Chris Watkins of Cornell University’s Department of Horticulture offered some advice on storing Honeycrisp and Empire varieties. Jim Mattheis, USDA-ARS research leader in postharvest physiology in Wenatchee, WA, discussed the unique challenges that growers in Washington state are facing, thanks to an overall strong apple crop nationwide.
“Last year, Washington’s crop was the largest we’ve ever had, and that was after a few hailstorms and a few other weather issues. So, it looks like they’re on the same trajectory, and last year because of what happened (in New York, Pennsylvania, and Michigan), people out there made a lot of money early in the season,” said Mattheis. They’re probably going to be disappointed that they aren’t going to that again this year.”
At LaMora Farms in North Rose, NY, tour-goers got an up-close look at several blocks of Honeycrisp in their fourth leaf. Jeff Alicandro of AgrAssistance is working with Earl LaMora to develop strategies to see how to best cultivate the popular but problematic variety.
“Honeycrisp, of course, presents itself some unique challenges, both storage-wise and also production-wise. … Empirical sprays and other return-bloom sprays certainly help … and, of course, with Honeycrisp the bitter pit issue is such a concern, that it takes a lot of calcium sprays, too,” said Alicandro. “We’re doing a bit of an experiment here to see if Honeycrisp by itself can do well. Anyone who reads our newsletters know we recommend a lot of cross-pollination in apples for a higher yield. But I think Honeycrisp is a bit unique. By themselves, they haven’t set as strongly as they do when they are in mixes. We do not chemically thin, and because they’re young trees, they are still vigorous. The fruit is going to be large. We did not hand thin until just about 10 days ago. So they were quite heavy in the tree.”
Also at LaMora Farms, a demo of the Munkchof three-row over-the-row orchard tower sprayer from Europe was held, as well as a self-steering harvest platform and several other new orchard equipment.
for a video of some of the equipment demos on the tour.
Tall spindle plantings in 12-by-3 spacings were at Cherry Lawn Fruit Farms in Alton, NY. Attendees were treated to talks on frost, deer, and bird control. Demonstrations included a GPS-based orchard fertilizer spreader, Kubota orchard tractor with a tower sprayer, and a mini-excavator with vibratory tamper installing orchard posts.
The final stop of the day was at S&L Farms, in Sodus, NY. Tour-goers eagerly watched as the new Wafler Harvest System with self-steering platform was among the highlights of the stop. Also, new fruit packing bags from New Zealand and a new 4WD forklift, tree planter, and hedging equipment were also showcased.
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