Why Fruit Research and YouTube Go So Well Together
September 7, 2021 Jon Clements, American Fruit Grower® magazine’s resident fruit expert out of University of Massachusetts Extension, made his YouTube debut way back on Nov. 7, 2006. Nearly 15 years later, seven people have “liked” that video. One person actually “disliked” it. Apparently, he or she wasn’t a fan of ‘Topaz’ and ‘Novaspy’ scab-resistant apples.
Whatever future Clements saw in YouTube back then, he wasn’t alone in his clairvoyance. Just six days after his first post, Google officially acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion in Google stock. Coincidence, surely. But if anyone could sell Google on “apple,” it would be Clements.
Now 153 videos into his YouTube career, Clements marvels at the breadth of YouTube.
“How cool of an education delivery method this is for fruit growers,” he says.
Remarkably, Clements was doing the delivering even before Dec. 15, 2005, the official launch date of YouTube.
“Yes, I was an early adopter for sure. I was into video way before YouTube even, I think,” he says. “The platform was QuickTime or RealPlayer, and I even ran a QuickTime Streaming Server at one time. I should dig that up because there are a bunch of old videos there.
“I started making video at UMass when I got a Canon video recorder that used the Mini-DV tape format, the DV format allowing non-linear video editing. I used Final Cut Pro when it first came out to do editing. I still mostly use that. After a few years of struggling to figure out how to deliver video reliably to everyone — Windows users typically did not work with QuickTime, it was an evolving issue — I realized YouTube was the way to go. The rest is history so to say.”
At the time of this writing, Clements’ YouTube page has attracted more than 4,000 subscriptions. “Interestingly, I became popular with a lot of apple growers from India,” he says.
Clements feels as though his YouTube career has slowed, but to the contrary, he has made 23 videos over the last 12 months. On July 3 he discussed notching and its promotion of branching on “whip” apple trees. Likes: 18. Dislikes: 0.
“When I seemed to have more spare time and energy, I made more videos and got lots of compliments even though, of course, they were not heavily produced. I still find myself proud of that aspect,” he says. “I have run out of ideas, or gotten busier, and maybe the novelty has worn off a bit, but I find myself doing less video, and, of course, the competition is there now.”
Clements prefers to keep his videos simple and short. “I don’t do much planning,” he says, “but I am a little particular. I still figure it takes an hour of time to produce one minute of my rather low-expectation videos. I think most professionals charge up to $1,000 a minute of finished video.”
His most popular post occurred Sept. 12, 2007. The topic of second-leaf ‘Honeycrisp’ on B.9 rootstock has elicited more than 767,000 views. “Oh, yeah, for some reason that one struck a chord,” Clements says.
“I should do a follow-up: Bud.9 not looking so great now. Or are they?”
His favorite post? “I am particularly proud of some of the more off-the-wall videos,” he says, “like the one about the cedar waxwings eating all my cherries to the soundtrack of “Drunken Sailor.”
And as for advice to budding YouTubers: “Post videos on Facebook.”
Subscribe Today For
