A22-Lancaater Farming, Saturday, July 5, 1997
It’s A
(Continued from Page A2l)
soil to desired levels.
The blueberries are watered reg
ularly with a traveler broadcast
irrigation system, providing one
inch of moisture per week, critical
to the shallow-rooted plants.
Blueberries sell for $1 per pound,
pick your own. Five acres of pick
your own strawberries are man
aged by Ontelaunee, which sell for
98 cents per pound. Pick-your
own sweet cherries go for $1.25.
The orchard uses water from the
Schuylkill River in addition to a
irrigation ponds.
At another site 1 , Nemeth showed
the tour members the varieties of
Red and Golden Delicious apples
planted. Red Chief are planted
with Ills and 7A rootstock, 18
foot in tows between wide mid
dles. Early on in the growth, the
orchard makes use of clothespins
and spreaders
The 111 rootstocks are planted
on 18-foot by 10-foot by 10- foot
spacings, at 311 trees to the acre.
The 7As are on 18- by 10- by
8-foot areas. The triple row 26s are
on 18- by 8- by 8- by 8-foot areas at
480 trees to the acre. The 9s are on
18- by 8- by 6-foot areas at 640
trees to the acre, double rows.
This year. Red Chief Ills will
start to bear, according to Nemeth.
Weed control is used in the fall
or early spring to keep weed pres
sure, including red root and Cana
da thistle, low.
Ontelaunee has made use of var
ious staking systems in the past,
with little luck. They switched to
an 8-foot steel stake, inserted two
feet in to the ground, with ties.
Two start an area for
an orchard, the ground
is first worked and a
seedbed prepared. Then
the orchard plants a
combination of 60 per
cent hard fescue and 40
percent creeping Red
Fescue. The rows for
trees are burned off with
Roundup.
Tour members visited
another site where
peaches are grown for
the orchard. Peaches are
harvested by crews at an
hourly rate not a
piece rate, as it is for the
apples. The apples, on
the other hand, are taken
off at a piece rate. Forty
five people are main
tained at the orchard’s
labor camp. At the peak
of the apple season, the
orchard employs 75-80
people to harvest, many
from Reading and “peo
ple who drift in,” he
said.
The apples are
brought to the loading
area within two hours of
being picked. They are
placed in a cold air cool
ing room for a cool
down to 32 degrees.
Trees are pruned and
maintained to a target
height of 7-7 Vi feet
high. Pruning is paid at a
piece rate of $3.50 per
tree.
Ontelaunee hasn’t
had any problems with
brown rot. They use a
brown rot control fungi
cide. Also, control of
European red mite has
been effective. Also,
flreblight has not made a
big impact on the
orchard.
‘Dog’ Day For Rodents At
At Weaver’s Orchard near Mor
gantown, Ed Weaver manages 100
acres of a diversified group of fruit
and vegetable crops. The orchard
has been in the business since the
19305. Like Ontelaunee, Weaver’s
makes use of seasonal labor,
employing about 10 at the peak of
harvest
Weaver’s manages five acres of
pick-your-own strawberries.
All of the crop is trickle irri
gated. Varieties grown include
Delmarvel, Sweet Charlie, Early
Glow, Raritan, Jewel, Off-Star,
Early Glow with Guardian, and
Late Glow.
Rick Keim, left, president of the Berks County Fruit Grow
ers, looks at Golden Delicious apple trees at Ontelaunee
Orchards with Harold Hollabaugh, an Adams County fruit
grower.
DRIVE
HIGH EFFICIENCY
Ed Weaver said, this year, the
crop has been “fair,” and not a lot
has been lost to weather. They
overhead irrigate to protect from
frost
A majority of the strawberries
and other fruit is trickle- irrigated.
Trickle lines are buried in the
mostly sandy loam soil. Water is
drawn from a 200-foot deep well at
SO gallons per minute. Also, a
pond is used to irrigate the crops.
Weaver’s sells strawberries at
the pick your own for 95 cents per
pound. At the height of the season,
the price lowers to 80 cents per
Orchard
pound. Strawberries are sold at
retail at $2.99 per quart
_ .ste mnee uses these L-bar Iron stakes, placed a foot
away from the trunk, on these Gala apples on 26 rootstock
planted in 1991. Trees are maintained 8-10 feet high.
Apples are pick your own, for
the most part Rootstock used is
111, with afew 26s and some 7As,
Weaver noted. In the spring of last
year some Pink Lady variety were
(Turn lo Pago A 24)
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