May 2019 - 18

Michigan State University's Gregory Lang, left, and Kyle Rasch of Windy Ridge
Orchards discuss peach tree training systems. Photos: Gary Pullano
UFO peach system finds favor
at Windy Ridge
By Gary Pullano
Managing Editor
When Gregory Lang conducts tree
fruit research in search of orchard
technologies that are optimized, efficient
production systems, he does so knowing
the fruit-growing community may or
may not embrace his findings.
The Michigan State University
horticulturalist doesn't have many doubts
about one such concept after seeing it
perform well in action at Windy Ridge
Orchards in Conklin, Michigan.
" One of the fears you have as a
researcher is we're supposed to push
the boundaries, try crazy things and let
you know which ones work and don't
work, " Lang said during the Michigan
Peach Meeting held in March in Benton
Harbor, Michigan. " Then you see a
grower who came and looked at our
research trials in 2012 or so, and said,
'Hey, I want to go back and give that a
little bit of a try. To see that he's making it
work makes you feel good, as opposed to
getting up and saying, 'This is one of the
biggest disasters we've ever tried. " '
Lang made the comments following
a presentation by fourth-generation
grower Kyle Rasch of Windy Ridge
Farms, who along with his father Chuck
- among the visitors to Lang's trials at
MSU's Clarksville research station - have
successfully embarked on the use of an
upright fruiting offshoots (UFO) training
18 | FruitGrowersNews.com
system on a block of peaches at their
farm in western Michigan.
" We're shooting for higher color, larger
fruit, " Kyle Rasch said. " A lot of our fruit
is 2 5/8 to 2 3/4 inches. "
Chuck Rasch planted open-system
peach trees in the early 1990s. The farm
removed that planting in 2014.
" We struggled to yield with open
centers, and color was an issue, " Kyle
Rasch said. " We started growing the Y
system in 2003. The biggest issue we
were seeing with the Y system is the cost
of labor that was continuing to increase.
We were looking for ways to try to be
innovative to manage the difference in the
cost of labor and the system that we plant. "
The farm operation worked with Lang
and began experimenting with a UFO
block, which is in its fourth leaf with five
different varieties: Early Glo, PF 13, PF
23, Starfire and Allstar.
" Our yields on this block are pretty
similar to the Y system, " Rasch said.
" We're able to pick the varieties in two
picks most of the time. The smallest pick
is usually our first pick just to get the
early maturing fruit on the tree.
" That's been a decent surprise, " he
said. " I wasn't really expecting that few
of picks as compared to our Y system. In
the long run, this is going to lend itself
to more mechanization, whether it be
running the hedger down these rows,
See UFO, page 20

http://www.FruitGrowersNews.com

May 2019

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