C2-Ui»cartw Farming, Saturday, October 4,1980
Myles E. Starner is an inventor, an innovator and a
philosopher, though not necessarily in that order. A small
fruit grower in an age when bigness often seems to be
better, Starner successfully operates a 34-acre apple
orchard north of Bendersville at Aspers R 1 in the heart of
Adams County’s fruit region.
Up untd three yers ago, Starner owned just 23 acres of
land. Starner is proud of the fact that his is a family
operation, with the exception of hiring some additional
pickers during the height of the season, which for Starner
begins in August and concludes in November. His pickers
are all local, either retirees or others who may have jobs
which allow them a few hours of work at Starners.
Saturdays are very busy days at Fruit Haven, but there is
no work done on Sunday.
Starner says,* “We have good pickers, but we pick the
majority of fresh apples ourselves.” His wife Dot adds,
“We guarantee no bruises on our fresh apples.”
This year Starner estimates that 25 percent of his crop
will be sold as fresh apples to Sandoes Packing in
Biglerville. He said, “Fresh apples are a lot more work
and a lot more expense. They must be a certain color and
a certain ripeness.” The remainder of his crop will be
factory apples which he markets through Knouse foods.
The drops and other damaged apples will become cider.
Starner is quick to point out that he has no ambitions to
become anything but a small fruit grower. He said, “1
always felt I wasn’t going to take anything with me. AUI
want is a decent living for myself. If you raise a family
and train them what more do you want?”
He pointed out that his enterprise has always been a
family one, with the children working alongside. “In a
large orchard the children would be lost. Here they do
everything we do. Our children knowhow to work.”
Two of the Starner children have moved into professions
of their own. Aria, 24, is a nurse and Laura, 23, is a
medical assistant and married. Neil, 19, helps fulltime in
the orchards. Brenda, 21, is married but lives close by and
also works in the orchards. Joyce 17, is a senior in High
School. Starner said, “They All picked in the evenings
after school.”
Aria was selected Adams County’s Apple Blossom
Queen in 1974 and went on to win the Pennsylvania Apple
Queen title in 1975. Brenda was selected as Penn
sylvania’s Cherry Queen in 1977. Starner says that she’s
one of his best pickers - on a recent Saturday she picked 6
bins, holding 25 bushels each, of apples.
Starner’s current delight lies in his dwarf apple trees
which are trellised to wires. Eight years ago, Stamer
decided to begin planting dwarf trees because, as he puts
it, “I felt it would be a challenge. The challenge had gone
out of growing regular apples and I have to live on a
challenge. 1 thought there had to be a better way to grow
apples and I had to see if it could be done.”
Well, it can be done, and quite successfully, if Stemer’s
orchards are any example. Since it takes three years for
dward trees to come into production, he is already har
vesting the benefits of the dwarf trees in many ways.
Starner began by taking out the standard trees and
semi-dwarfs he had planted in the 1950’s as their
production started to go down and training and pruning
them became more difficult. Starner pointed out that it
takes a standard tree from seven to ten years to go into
full production and most fruit growers will use the same
set of trees throughout their lifetime.
One of the most obvious advantage of the dwarf tree is
ease of harvest Starner says, “Anybody can help.” In
fact be feels that people who pick apples will one day
dictate what kind of trees are planted.
Indeed, picking apples from a dwarf tree couldn’t be
easier. Seven feet tall is the maximum height, and trees
are trained to trellises, with the limbs fastened in place
with plastic ties. “Each tree looks like a fan,” Dot points
out and all the fruit is within easy picking range.
But Starner is always looking for a better way of doing
things, and now that his dwarf trees are coming into
Starrier’s daughter Brenda steers the “ irf the machine can be close enough for easy picking
apple picking aide" into position very close to the for the driver, who merely picks the low apples
row of trees. Since the trees are trained to wires, within reach.
BY SALLY BAIR
Dwarf apple trees challenge Starner
production, he hasinvented a “picking aide” which allows
a driver to sit close to the ground on a slow moving vehicle
and pick the low apples comfortably. Other pickers can
follow the rie and nick the remaining apples, all of which
are within an arm’s reach.
For his un-named invention, Starner put a nine hor
sepower engine (out of his pruning rig “which had worn
out twice”) onto a truck bed, placed a low seat and
steering wheel on one side. He positioned one bin for
putting apples into and arranged to have three bins
carried on die top of the vehicle. When the low bin is full, it
is dropped off and another bin is lowered into place. This
arrangement keeps the machine moving and the pickers
busy.
Tlie rig moves at a snail’s pace, so Dot and other pickers
can keep up to it as it moves closely along the row of trees.
The driver, as his bucket is filled, simply sets it on the
ground and one of the pickers who is walking empties it
into the bin. There is a place for several picking buckets,
so when one is full the driver reaches for another without
moving. The whole operation is a smooth one, and gives
everybody a comfortable position for picking. Dot pointed
out that she never stoops. There is an extra bag attached"
to the bin for drops or damaged apples, but on the trellised
trees, they are amazingly scarce.
There are differences in working with dwarf trees and
Stamer credits Dr. Loren Tukey of Penn State with giving
him many of the answers he_ needed to go mto dwarf
production. “Everything I learned about dwarfs I learned
from him,” Starner acknowleges. Tukey does research on
dwarf trees at Penn State along with his teaching duties.
Starner also spends about two hours dailying reading
periodicals and other publications.
Noting that dwarf trees are “strictly European in
concept,” Stamer said, “I think its going to take time
before they catch on. Most fruit growers want to be big.
Dwarf trees are so much more concentrated and per acre
there is more work. One person can handle 16 acres of
dwarf trees.” Stamer the philosopher says,” Trees are
like people. They don’t grow the same. Some are short.
Some are tall.”
Pruning on a dwarf tree begins in June, and Stamer
says he just completed his 16 acres. “You want a small
tree and pruning in summer will give a dwarf effect.” As
they work on the trees throughout the Rummer, going
through the rows at least twice, they also take off poor
quality apples. Stamer said, “You get almost 100 percent
quality apples on dwarf trees.”
Stamer pointed out that the cost of putting in dwarf
trees is much higher per acre than in standard trees.
“There are fixed costs that go into raising dwarf trees.
You plant five times the number of trees per acre and you
need posts and wire. But they also get into production
years earlier. For me as a small grower I wish 1 didn’t
have anything that isn’t on wire.”
In a normal year, Stamer expects to get about 800
bushels per acre on his dwarf trees. The total harvest is -
about the same as with standard trees because of the dose
concentration of trees.
In training the trees, Stamer said one limb is allowed to
grow per wire, and the ends are never nipped. He added.
Adams fruit grower
wmesieed
t/nifis
“You never let a branch go straight up. ’’You grow n
it and cut it off. Only the main limbs remain permani
The limbs are trained to the wire with tomato staple;
plastic ties.
“We put a guard on every tree we plant,” Starnei
adding that deer and rabbits are a constant probj
“We’ve tried every crazy thing thats ever been sugge;
A lot of things work for a short period.”
Stamer buys root stock “wherever it is available,
have to know what you want to plant two years
Most of ours is bought locally.”
As is the case almost everywhere in this part of
state, the weather has played havoc with fniit. Stai
said, “The weather has been so dry there will be qmi
few drops we won’t be able to pick at all. They are
dried up. It has been too dry and the apples are droppj
The stems are drying on the tree.”
. This year the total crop will be small because apple;
about 30 percent smaller than usual. “This will cut
back on the harvest,” Starner npjfes. “In this
everybody is the same.”
Stamer said he doesn’t think apples will be much.
expensive to the consumer because the estimate for
total harvest is about the same as last year. Neverthel
Dot points out that estimates on production levels w<
reported before the prolonged dry spell was underway
In the area where Stamer’s Fruit Haven is locate
there had been less than two inches of rainfall from Me
29 to the second week of September. There were only hgl
sprinkles during those 111 days. Stamer said the last tr
rain was so scarce in that part of Adams County was
1966. But he said realistically, “This is one business y
can’t get in and out.” He also feels his dwarf trees c ?
through the drought better than his standards.
mg
* <tr*'
t ~
' 4 -f *
' * i 4 v*-
'■* * < *”
m-’ ' -
%
- v • V,
I ’
** <. *•-
\&*\t
V **&*":• *ysr
r „
C> % "
Starner stands by one of the dwarf apple trees.
It is easy to see the fan-like appearance of the
trained trees, which are pruned and trained to
wires. The small tree is easy to harvest and allows
many more trees per acre than standard trees, d
A view from the front end of the picking aide.
The driver is actually seated with his back to the
direction the aide is moving, but it’s
slow movement still allows easy steering *
needed. Brenda is picking from the lower portion
of the tree and Dot is following behind the machine
picking the remainder of the apples, all of which
are within arm's reach.
(Turn to Page C 7)
-
* .1 3
■* i”
wj
p*r m
*4
.’J