Wendy Silverman Master’s Candidate At Penn State Extension Education From June 19-22, 53 State Horticulture Association of Pennsylvania (SHAP) mem bers traveled to Nova Scotia for an orchard tour of the An napolis Valley. Associate Pro fessor of Pomology Dr. George Greene, and Executive Secre tary of SHAP Maureen Irvin organized this trip. Our Nova Scotia hosts were Bill Craig of the Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture and Charlie Em bree of Agriculture and Agri- Food Canada. Our days were packed with events from orchard tours to exploring working seaports. We flew from Harrisburg to Allentown and then to Toronto on a 40-passenger commuter plane, and from Toronto to Halifax on a Boeing 337. Our Saturday dinner was at Peggy’s Cove, a community of about 50 residents, which features an ex cellent restaurant, a few gift shops, and a lighthouse that also is a post office in the sum mer season. Peggy’s Cove has a very narrow port where only small boats would dare to en ter. The cove has a rocky land scape, which gives the place mystical characteristics. In September 1998, a Swiss Air flight tragically went down 10 miles off the coast of Peggy’s Cove. Sadly, several Pennsyl vania residents were on board On Sunday we visited Ma MESSICK'S Equipment New Holland INF Narrow Tractor 57 to 80 PTO hp Exclusive Supersteer Traction Management System MESSWK'S Equipment RD #l, Box 225 A Rt. 30, Abbottstown, PA 17301 Phone (717) 259-6617 State Hort. Members Tour Annapolis Valley hone Bay and Lunenburg. The entrance signs to Mahone Bay read, “We love the beauty around us and welcome you to share it.” There are three churches standing side by side when you enter the town. The churches are a well-known in ternational landmark. Mahone Bay is a small town and very quiet on Sunday morning be cause most businesses do not open until noon. I guess the majority of the store owners must have been at church that morning. Lunenburg was formed as a shipbuilding and seafaring town in 1753. It was a much larger port than Mahone Bay, with several restaurants, gift stores, art studios, a museum, and boat tours. This town was known for building famous wooden ships such as the Blue nose, HMS Bounty, HMS Rose, Bluenose 11, and the Pic ton Castle. From there we headed off to the Annapolis Valley, the or chard belt of Nova Scotia. The: Annapolis Valley borders the: Bay of Fundy, where the high est tides in the world occur. We visited five different orchards and the Atlantic Food and Hor ticulture Research Centre in Kentville. Several production issues were discussed on these tours. Emphasis was placed on how to increase tree vigor on dwarfing rootstocks, chemical thinners, irrigation, and or chard disease and pest prob lems. Grower and Marketer, Lancaster Farming, Saturday, December 11, 1999—Page Increasing Tree Fruit Vigor On Dwarfing Rootstocks The most common problen Nova Scotia orchards must overcome is not getting enough tree vigor with dwarfing root stocks. In Pennsylvania we have the opposite problem, too much vigor. Trees in Nova Scotia have low vigor because of climate. Additionally, root stock selection, soil type, or chard system, and overcrop ping can further reduce vigor. Dwarfing rootstocks are used in high density plantings in efforts to achieve high yields early in the life of the orchard. The two most common root stocks being used in Nova Sco tia are M. 9 and M. 26. Many trees on these rootstocks have not filled their space even after six to seven years. The soils are very diverse in Nova Scotia. Soil types can change even in the same tree row. If an orchard or a group of trees in an orchard is exhibiting poor performance, soil is often the problem. Problems include hardpan, inadequate nutrients, and poor site preparation, espe cially in replant sites. Keith Fuller, a visiting soil scientist from South Africa, suggests that growers should begin preparing the site three to five years before the intended planting date. Apple produc tion began in the Annapolis Valley in 1633; therefore, us ing replant sites is a common occurrence. Fuller suggests « 55 & 85 GALLON REAR MOUNT SPRAYERS that most old orchard soils need fumigation to control re plant diseases. Climate in general is much cooler in Nova Scotia, al though the winter lows are similar to those in Pennsylva nia. They have entered their third consecutive drought year, which has contributed to a con siderable amount of tree stress. There are several orchard systems in use in high-density plantings. The various systems we saw in the Annapolis Val ley were modified slender spindle; vertical axe; V-trellis, using both V- and Y-style planting; and a high density planting using unsupported semi-dwarf rootstocks. Of the supported methods, the vertical axe system was the most favored by the orchardists we visited. They liked it be cause they were able to achieve an ideal height of 12 feet and maximize their canopy vol ume. In a vertical axe system, there was one wire along the top of the posts to provide ad ditional post support. The modified slender spindle system is also used in several orchards. The tree sup ports are shorter in the modi fied slender spindle system than those used in the vertical axe system; therefore, ade quate support is not given to the upper tree canopy. Maxi mum canopy volume cannot be obtained in the slender spindle system. The other trellis systems re quire the branches or the whole tree to be bent on an angle, which reduces vigor. In Nova Scotia, these systems cause too much vigor reduction and the trees look stunted. Pennsylva nia uses systems like the V trellis to reduce tree vigor to a desirable level. One method that looked promising for Nova Scotia was planting larger, free-standing rootstocks close together. This was accomplished at a root stock trial by Charlie Embree, and J.P. Priv’e in Kentville. Vi gor was contained by over crowding the trees to limit root growth by using a pruning method that would limit tree vigor and by using spur varie ties that are less precocious. A freestanding tree takes longer to crop, which limits returns. One other factor that dwarfs or “runts out” a young tree is overcropping. When a tree has too many fruits, the tree will apply much of its energy to fruit development and not tree growth. One way to control this problem is by removing all fruit during its early years. Since it takes too long to hand thin, many orchards are now using chemical thinners. Al though thinning solves the problem of high loss of vigor in young trees, removing the fruit defeats the purpose of using a high-density system, which is to increase early production. Chemical Thinners Chemical thinners were discussed sever al times on the tour. This was emphasized because, like Penn sylvania, Nova Scotia has a high consumer demand for large colorful apples. To achieve this demand, only one apple can grow per cluster of blossoms and some times even this pro duces too many ap ples. from 191 Nova Scotia or chardists are looking into chemical thinners to reduce the number of apples per tree be cause hand thinning would not be eco nomical. The most difficult types of trees to con trol fruiting are bien nial bearing trees. This is when vigorous varieties produce too many fruit one year, and hardly any fruit the following year. Triploid verities, or trees that contain three copies of their genes, are also heavy fruit bearers. Graven stien, a popular culti var in Nova Scotia is a triploid tree. As mentioned ear lier, Nova Scotia is also looking at chemi cal thinners to de-fruit young trees so .hey will not “runt out” from overcropping. There are several chemical thinners on (Turn to Page 14)
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers