April, 1999
The International Dwarf Fruit Tree Association winter tour got a close look at some of the best Ontario has to offer.
The late February tour stopped at the orchards of Harold Schooley and Tom Chudleigh, the Norfolk Fruit Growers’ Association and the Horticultural Experiment Station at Simcoe.
The NFGA is in its 93rd year and has undergone many changes in its long history. It had 525 members in 1911 and now has 32. There were 90 varieties handled in 1931 — now there are 29. The big five varieties are Empire, McIntosh, Northern Spy, Red Delicious and Idared, said Gary Cooper, one of the members of Norfolk.
The market is evenly divided between Ontario, the rest of Canada and export. The association produces about 20% of the apples in Ontario from 277,000 trees on 3,300 acres. Association members have the potential to produce 2 1/4 million bushels a year, but that’s if every tree produces at its peak.
The action starts at the destacker and water dumper, which can handle 20 to 30 bins per hour, depending on variety and quality. Each apple takes seven minutes to go through the entire line.
Flotation is the most gentle method available to remove the apples from the bins and to the sorting tables, said Cooper. The tank is ozonated to maintain the condition of the water.
Defects are still removed manually from the line, with graders looking for scab, stem punctures, bruises and other blemishes. An optical grader checks for color. Any fruit not suitable to pack for the fresh market are removed and destined to become slices, juice or applesauce.
The apples go through a washer and waxer, and then spend 90 seconds in a dryer at 125°. The next stop is a computer-controlled sizing and color sorting tray pack line that was installed in 1993. The tray fillers operate on nine main sizes — 88, 100, 113, 125, 138, 150, 163, 175 and 198.
An automatic bagging line uses a machine from Spain that cost the co-op $250,000. That’s a hefty price tag, but it pays off in labor savings, said Cooper. Norfolk is the only unionized packing plant east of the Canadian Rockies and workers are paid an average of $10.50-$11 an hour plus benefits.
"With the bagger and other mechanization, we’re still cost-competitive," said Cooper.
Foreign shipments are inspected by Norfolk quality control staff and a federal government inspector with an office on-site. These extra measures are necessary to meet standards, including the Empires going to Great Britain. The fruit is rejected at the dock there if it does not pressure test at 14 pounds.
Norfolk is in the process of completely converting from plywood to plastic bins. At the end of the process, approximately 50,000 plastic bins will be on hand. Cooper explained that the maintenance costs of the plywood bins is too high and that the plastic bins can help reduce cooling costs.
The Norfolk facility’s Plant 1 has a total of three acres of storage. It contains 3.5 million cubic feet of storage capable of holding a half-million bushels. Types of storage available include dry, common, cold and controlled atmosphere.
In 1997 and 1998, all rooms holding 1,000 bins were split in half. The result is storage rooms that can be filled, cooled and emptied faster. Rooms now hold 600 to 800 bins stacked nine high.
John Cline, researcher at the Simcoe station, described a number of projects there that are of interest to the dwarf fruit tree grower.
A trial started in 1992 is looking at non-chemical methods of controlling soil replant diseases in apples. Nematodes can be a major contributing factor to these diseases, especially in sandy orchard soil. Trees are Jonagold on M.9 rootstock using the Slender Spindle system.
Treatments compared were a control, high and low fumigation (30 and 15 gallons of Vorlex to the acre), a cover crop of oilseed rape and fallow soil with frequent cultivation. By 1998, trees treated with either regime of Vorlex were significantly larger than all other treatments. Yields are greater on the fumigated and untreated control trees, which are a year older than all the others in the trial.
A study is looking at the influence of irrigation and tree quality (as measured by the number of lateral branches) on early performance of Empire, Gala and Jonagold. Points of comparison are irrigation vs. non-irrigation and whips vs. feathered trees. Trees were planted in 1994 on M.9 at a spacing of 6.6 x 14.8 feet.
At the end of the first growing season, the feathered trees had greater overall shoot length than the whips — but there is no significant difference when shoot length and number are adjusted for tree size. By 1998, tree size between irrigated and unirrigated trees was not significantly different. A marked difference was observed in yield, with the cumulative yield of irrigated trees passing that of non-irrigated trees by 40%.
Early performance is also the focus of a trial looking at how Jonagold, Empire and Northern Spy perform on five Vineland rootstocks and three other stocks. The Vineland stocks are V.1, V.2, V.3, V.4 and V.7. The other rootstocks are M.9, M.26 and O.3. Cline believes that of the Vineland stocks, only 1, 2 and 3 will be commercially viable.
Simcoe is the site of 1990 and 1994 NC-140 Gala dwarf and semi-dwarf rootstock trials and of an NC-140 orchard systems trial. Another trial is comparing non-chemical biocontrol of orchard replant disease, using soy meal, meat and bone meal and chicken manure.
Chudleigh Orchard near Milton is part of an entertainment farming operation that draws many customers from the Toronto metropolitan area. Owner Tom Chudleigh said the orchard was planted in order to grow a very large, easy-to-reach apple for pick-your-own customers.
The first planting was 13 years ago, "almost by accident," according to Chudleigh. The planting was 2,000 feet of three-year-old Cortland on M.9 planted on a slight berm six inches above the ground on a 6-by-15-foot spacing. For the last 11 years, this planting has produced plenty of large fruit each year and has encouraged Chudleigh to plant more high density orchards.
Fumigation to 18 inches has dramatic results in first- and second-year growth. Planting year growth of 24-30 inches is not uncommon for trees on M.9, the rootstock of choice. Chudleigh explained that all other rootstocks produce trees that are too large for his PYO customers and too costly for him to maintain.
Spacings are 13 1/2, 14 and 15 feet wide rows and three to seven feet in the row. The support system is a trellis of a single wire at seven feet tall, with each tree supported by an eight-foot bamboo pole. The poles are 22-24 grade thickness. Chudleigh uses a Max Tapener tie in one- and two-year old wood and a stretch elastic soon after.
Trees are fertilized three times the first year. They are taken to the field in water containing 10-57-17. Ammonium nitrate is applied at 200 pounds per acre 10 days after planting. Two to three weeks later, 20-20-20 is soaked on. Watering from overhead sprinklers may be needed. Straw mulch is placed on all new tree plantings.
Chudleigh said training appears to have the greatest influence on productivity. Tree quality is the first and most important consideration.
"I would rather spend $8 on a tree with scaffolds long enough to produce three apples in the second year than $4 on a one-year-old whip," he said.
Chudleigh uses Warwick yellow weights on trees soon after they reach the toothpick stage. These weights may be moved three or more times during the growing season.
The Fruit Growers News