June, 1999

IDFTA summer tour features Colorado orchards, wineries

This year’s International Dwarf Fruit Tree Association’s summer tour will have a backdrop of the western slope of the Rocky Mountains and the Colorado River for two days of travel visiting the state’s fruit industry.

The tour will be held in Grand Junction, Colo., June 27-29. It will focus on apple, peach, pear, cherry and wine grape production. Colorado’s unique industry finds its home spread over three counties, a distance of 100 miles and elevations from 4,400 to 7,000 feet.

A few of the horticultural stops planned for the tour include:

• Talbott Farms, Palisades, Colo. Harry Talbott and his three sons Bruce, Charlie and Nathan head up a fifth generation family farm. The Talbotts grow, pack and market apples, peaches and pears from 230 acres. This stop is located in the heart of Colorado’s peach country, and will reveal the progression in peach plantings from the Open Vase systems planted at 12 x 18 feet to higher-density Perpendicular V and Quad V systems planted at 5 x 16 feet.

• First Fruits, Paonia, Colo. Kris and Kevin Kropp will be the host for this stop highlighting their high-density organic cherries planted at 4 x 12 feet. The Kropp brothers farm Colorado’s largest organic fruit operation consisting of 275 acres of apples, pears, cherries and peaches.

• Williams Orchards. Dan and his son, Ty (a fourth generation fruit grower) farm 160 acres of apples and peaches in the Cedaredge area. The orchard is in continual transition with densities from 200 trees per acre up to 5,400 trees per acre. Sure to be included as a stop will be their trellised Gala and Fuji blocks under netting (originally designed for hail, but providing great benefits in other areas).

• Dominquez Canyon. The tour will have to go down a winding canyon road along the Gunnison River to view Gary Broughton’s Dominquez Canyon Fruit and Jerry Holton’s Homestead Orchard. Both of these operations date back to the turn of the century.

Another stop will include Plum Creek Cellars to view the winery and sample award-winning wines crafted from Colorado grapes. There will also be a stop at the Rocky Mountain Meadery, where participants will have the opportunity to learn the history and see the process of making mead (a beverage made with honey and fruit).

Meals during the tour have been designed to bring out the history and flavor of the area – from a catered lunch in a shady park above the Colorado River, to a locally famous barbeque, to a steak dinner in an old historic packing house.

Following dinner in Cedaredge, the journey back to Grand Junction will take the groups over the top of the 11,000-foot Grand Mesa, and down the other side to follow the Colorado River back to the hotel.

Tourgoers may expect daytime temperatures in the high 80s, with nighttime lows in the mid-50s. Humidity is usually in the low teens.

Both Denver and Salt Lake airports are approximately five hours travel time by auto (the drive from Denver over the Rockies is ,by far, the more scenic of the two). Flight arrangements can also be made directly into Grand Junction.

For more information, call the IDFTA business office at (717) 837-1551.

The Fruit Growers News