How Sweet It Is for Today's Tree Fruit Growers

By David Eddy|February 22, 2022

The International Fruit Tree Association (IFTA) 65^th Annual Conference theme this year was “Seeking The Production Sweet Spot 2022,” and it certainly was for growers and researchers alike of apples, peaches, cherries, and pears as they celebrated being back together again.

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The International Fruit Tree Association (IFTA) 65th Annual Conference Tour was held in the fruit country of Adams County, Pennsylvania Feb. 14. The first outdoor stop was at Mt. Ridge Farms, where the Slaybaugh family showed off their operation.
Photo by David Eddy
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The stop at Mt. Ridge featured the traditional IFTA pruning discussion. It was practically balmy for a winter IFTA tour, as temperatures didn’t even drop into the teens.
Photo by David Eddy
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Rice Fruit Company in Gardners, PA showed off their impressive packing line, which features a gentle trip for these apples.
Photo by David Eddy
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The company now has four robots to take care of repetitive tasks – and they don’t take coffee breaks.
Photo by David Eddy
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The next stop was the Penn State Fruit Research and Extension Center in Biglerville where Assistant Professor of Agricultural and Biological Engineering Long He’s students showed off their projects. This is the early stages of development of a robotic green fruit thinning system for apple orchards.
Photo by David Eddy
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Demonstration of this unit at the Biglerville station featured visual recognition leading to automatic spraying.
Photo by David Eddy
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Also at Biglerville, Jim Schupp, Professor of Pomology and Fruit Research, showed off his extensive peach trial, essentially trying to grow peaches more like apples, with high-density systems. “We’re overdue for a sea change in peach production systems,” Schupp said.
Photo by David Eddy
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The final stop was at Hollabaugh Bros., also in Biglerville. Brad Hollabaugh, the 2000 American Fruit Grower^SM Apple Grower of the Year, told of his success in growing some unusual varieties of pears.
Photo by David Eddy

Talks covered a wide range of topics, many of which will be explored further on GrowingProduce.com, including several on various aspects of orchard replant, including Rapid/Sudden Apple Decline. The Wallace Heuser Presidential Lecture was a Five-Year Overview of Apple Root-2-Fruit Specialty Crop Research Initiative, by Lailiang Cheng of Cornell University.

Much tree fruit research at IFTA and elsewhere focuses on apples, but peaches were often center stage this year, essentially trying to grow apples more like peaches, with high-density systems. IFTA Education Director Greg Lang of Michigan State University, who is also a columnist for American Fruit Grower and works primarily in stone fruit, noted as much.

“I think you can see this is a really exciting time to be a peach researcher, a lot more exciting than the last 40 years,” he said. “It’s an exciting time to be a grower, too.”

The IFTA took the opportunity to meet in person by presenting honors for both this year and last. The 2021 and 2022 Outstanding Grower awards went to the Weaver Family, Weaver’s Orchard of Morgantown, PA; and the Boyer family, Ridgetop Orchards of Fishertown, PA, including Mark Boyer, former chairman of the U.S. Apple Association, and his father Dan, the 2006 Apple Grower of the Year.