December 2019 - 9

" We use a soil tensiometers, measuring
the tension in the soil, " Botden said. " They
are connected to data logging stations.
Once a week, we'll go around with a data
shuttle, stick a memory card in, and take
the readings. There's many different systems
available, but this is fairly cheap and simple.
" My sister will go around and do the
scouting, measure fruit and take soil
moisture readings and then I can sit in
front of the computer and make a good
decision, " Botden said. " If I'm not sure, I
will have to go out to the orchard and check
it myself, but (he uses) something like this
- to be able to see the graph and knowing
the moisture is where it's at when you need
it. Especially in this orchard, where we've
had 8 millimeters, or less than one-half an
inch since the beginning of July, which isn't
going to do it for the trees to make the size
that we need. "
Botden's father, Marius, was a
nurseryman who immigrated to Canada in
2001. He explained how the labor crew has
abandoned the use of picking bags from
the harvest work and now pick directly
into bins while using a platform and bin
trailer. There are about 600 to 900 hours per
season devoted to platform use.
Another strategy is to use a fullyenclosed
cage for bins placed on a bin
tractor trailer. It hauls 130 to 142 empty
bins and 72 to 78 bins when full, stacked
four high.
" We put more hours on (the platforms
built off a hydrostatic Kioti tractor chassis)
than our tractors, " Marius said. " On the
whole farm we have just two picking
ladders, and we always have to search for
where they are. "
Changing with the times
Longtime grower Murray Porteous
is phasing out involvement in his apple
growing endeavor, but he had some tips for
others undergoing farm transitions.
" With good management, we've been
able to keep (some low-density plantings)
profitable for a long time, " while attempting
to maintain recent high-density plantings.
A 35-acre Wafler tip system has Gala
and Ambrosia plantings on m.9 consists of
8-foot narrow rows on 13-foot wide rows.
that we use on the other farms.
" With going eight feet, we kept the trees
the same as what Wafler's had, by moving
the trees two inches closer together. The
Gala are planted at 42 inches, and the
Ambrosia are at 40 inches between trees, all
planted with GPS, " he said. The posts lean
out 16 inches from over the bottom to the
top, about 9.5 feet.
trees last year and we've replaced another
hundred this year. "
Multileader believer
Ken Denbok is farm manager at To No
End Orchard. He has been farming for
37 years.
" I have 20 acres of my own down the
Marius Botden explains the benefits of his
operation's four-row sprayer.
" It's a two-wire system, " Porteous said.
" We put the bottom wire at 5.5 feet so we
can pick everything every other row and
not have problems getting between the
trees, and in and out through the rows.
We don't like low wires for that reason. We
want to be able to get around the trees and
get out, and fill bins.
" It's designed to be picked with a
platform so the wider rows should be
vertical when the trees have filled the
space and the narrow rows would be on
an angle, " he said. " We don't take any
equipment, other than a mower and a
weed sprayer, down a narrow row. This
is to be picked with a platform at the top
when it's in bearing. "
Porteous said the operators modified
a Phil Brown weed sprayer " so we can
get down the narrow rows without any
problem with the John Deere tractor. "
Potential wind damage has raised
concerns about tree stability, Porteous said.
" We're concerned about trees maybe
tipping over. We've got a post every 10 trees.
On the end rows where we don't have a
cross wire going to another row, we put the
posts closer to get a little bit more strength.
We had a tornado come through this farm
last year, and we didn't lose a single tree.
The trees are all wrapped on a wire. That's
to cut costs and get away from conduit. The
theory is the wire will eventually cut into
the tree and force branches up the trunk.
Sometimes it's hard to get branches to
reestablish when you take the bigger ones
out lower on the canopy, and hopefully it
will help us with that.
" There were a 130-kilometer winds
Murray Porteous talks about high-density
apple plantings.
" This is the last high-density planting
we've planted, " Porteous said. " I really
like this block. It's in its third leaf. These
were knipboom trees, Gala on m.9
predominately. There's 42,000 Gala (trees)
and 1,500 Ambrosia in this 35-acre block,
planted eight feet between the narrow rows
and 13 feet between the wide ones.
" We have pretty aggressive soil, so
(planting) seven feet (as was viewed by
Porteous' son on an IFTA tour of Wafler's
in New York state) just made me really
nervous, so we spread it out another foot
to give us a little more room, " Porteus
said. " Plus, we also didn't want to buy
any special equipment for this farm, just
for 35 acres. So, it's all of the equipment
they figured going through this block
and no trees were lost, " he said. " We did
have a heck of a lot of hail in here. We had
dime-sized crab apples where I counted
20 hail hits on an apple. It cut up the bark
and the limbs really bad, and ripped some
limbs. We went through and thinned the
fruit off because the apples were cut in half
and there was no way we could get enough
fungicide on to protect them from getting
pathogens on them, so they wouldn't even
make juice. "
The storm damage required a
detailed approach.
" We really babied the trees last year and
got them to grow decent, " Porteous said.
" I'm pretty happy with how they came out
of it. One big problem we had is once we
had all of those injuries on the bark, black
stem borer moved in. We lost a thousand
road, " he told the IFTA visitors. " We farm
45 acres here of actual orchard. In 2007,
we started planting super spindle; now
we're trying twin leader. We grow 40%
Honeycrisp, with some Courtland, Ginger
Gold, Goldens, Ambrosia and Gala.
Average production for the last six years
has been 37 bins an acre of fancy fruit, no
processing. We try to grow high-end fruit
for the fruit markets.
" I'm very fortunate, " Denbok said. " My
father was a packer, so I was able in the
1980s to go to Europe every other year. If
you think (multileader trees) is new, I saw
this in the 80s, and it was more the UFO
(upright fruiting offshoot) style than this. "
" If I can get a tree for $10, now I can
get two trees for $10, " he said. After
determining his cost to plant a super
spindle system in 2007 was $50,000, he
decided to explore multileader systems.
said. " I'm hoping I can get enough light
penetration. I don't want my branches to
cross each other. One branch should be a
foot from each tree. I'm going to try to get
lots of windows in there. "
Kyle, left, and Shane Ardiel outline the
rationale behind their their orchard decisions.
" This is one tree every foot, and then
11-foot spacing, " Kyle Ardiel said. " They
are on 10-degree angles. Everything has
been tape-gunned up with D-clips on the
bottom. With trees in the ground, my costs
are $50,000 to the acre. We're going to try
to aim for 80s and 88s. If I can get 50 apples
on these trees once they are full grown, it
should be close to 80-100 bins an acre, if
you do the 4,000 trees at the 88 size. "
Small area, big results
Tom Ferri operates T&K Orchards with
his wife Karen, brother Joe - a retired
engineer who has come back to the farm -
and a staff from Trinidad.
" It's not big acreage here, but we try to
make it very precise and make it work, "
Tom Ferri said.
" We moved here in 2012, " he said. " We
Ken Denbok shares his appreciation for
multileader plantings systems.
Gala was planted on m.9 rootstock with
30 inches between leaders. Rows were 12
feet apart in 2015. Another Gala block was
planted in 2019 with m.26 multileader trees.
Seeking solutions
Shane Ardiel of Apple Springs Orchards
planted his home farm in 1984 in a semidrawf
system. In 1996, he started planting
his first high-density plot, 640 trees per
acre, 5x14 on about 30 acres. In about
2006, Ardiel purchased the bottom part of
father's old farm.
" In 2010, we started planting Galas here, "
Ardiel said. " Now, it's mostly Honeycrisp,
equal parts Ambrosia and Gala. We have
some Crimson Crisp and some Salish. "
" At least 50 percent of our plantings are
on b.9 or m.9, " Ardiel said.
Three years ago, the operation tried
some Geneva 890s with Honeycrisp. The
block had 2x11 spacing.
" We're looking at 30 apples a tree, on the
conservative side. With about 2,100 trees to
the acre, we're going to run maybe 30 bins
to the acre with that. "
Shane's son, Kyle, led an effort to see
how Royal Red Honeycrisp on g.41
potted trees performed perform on a
V-trellis system verses dormant planted
B42 Honeycrisp on b.9 trees.
" They were a nightmare to plant, " Kyle
Ardiel said. The trees were difficult to
remove from the pot and would lose dirt
and some roots.
The V trellis was pursued in an effort to
encourage light interception, boosting the
number of apples on the tree.
" Basically, I'm trying to determine the
difference between g.41 Paula Reds, and a
b.9 red strain of Honeycrisp, " Kyle Ardiel
Tom Ferri strives for precise crop
management.
" We do things here a little different with
Honeycrisp and Mutsu, Cortland and even
McIntosh, he said. " We want apples that
are 56s, 64s and 72s for the markets we
have. Some will say you don't get paid any
for that, but we get paid a huge premium,
especially for the Honeycrisp. They're
all stem-cut. They're SmartFreshed and
conditioned here before they go out. We
try to get 80s, 88s and 100s with Gala. On
Ambrosia, we can almost always get 80s
and 88s. Gala, we struggle with. "
Tom and Joe Ferri have adopted
Michigan State University Extension
educator Phil Schwallier's precision apple
thinning spreadsheet.
The model works differently in the
Georgian Bay region of Ontario, Ferri
Orchards has found. FGN
FGN | DECEMBER 2019 | 9
farmed before that for 50 years of my life,
just 30 miles west of Toronto. We packed
apples down there and sold into all kinds
of high-end little stores in the Toronto.
My family developed those relationships
with the food terminal and other stores
from the 1930s on through to the 1970s.
We got out of packing then and just sold
into the food terminal. "
" We've been involved since about 2013
in the thinning program that Cornell
(University) set up, " he said. " It's worked
well for us. We always were aggressive
in chemical thinning, and this made us
more aggressive as we sort of know where
we're at. "
December 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of December 2019
