Description: Tory Schmidt, Project Manager for the Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission hosts this virtual tour of the Stemilt pear block which utilizes the bi-axis technique. Speakers: Stefano Musacchi, WSU Endowed Chair for Orchard Management and Production Systems at TFREC-Wenatchee; Bryan Mrachek, Stemilt Area Manager; Jorge Andrade, Stemilt Orchard Manager; and Hannah Walters, Stemilt Research and Development. Technical support: TJ Mullinax, Good Fruit Grower (videography); Wendy Jones, WSU Tree Fruit Extension (post-production edits).
Text Transcript and Description of Visuals
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| Good afternoon. I’m Tory Schmidt. I’m a project manager for the Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission, and I’m also a member of the Tree Fruit Extension Team. I’m really pleased to be joining you today from a very exciting pear orchard being managed by Stemilt up near the Chelan Falls area for this virtual field day. | 5 people stand in the row of a high density pear orchard. We can see that the trees are small and planted close together. |
| Joining me today for this conversation are Professor Stefano Musacchi with WSU in Wenatchee, Hannah Walters who works for the research and development for Stemilt, Jorge Andrade who is the farm manager here, and Bryan Mrachek who works as the area manager for Stemilt. | Tory gestures to each of the other video participants as he gives their name and position. |
| So Bryan, one of the things that’s obvious about standing in this block, is it doesn’t look hardly anything like my pear block up in Dryden. It’s much more high density and different sort of approach to farming. Can you tell us a little bit about how Stemilt chose to plant a farm like this, and what were Stemilt’s objectives in moving towards this sort of horticulture in pears? | Tory gestures to Bryan, and the text “Bryan Mrcheck, Stemilt Area Manager” appears next to him. |
| So moving towards more of a two-dimensional system or even a three-dimensional system in pears really is trying to tackle labor costs and also production in bins per acre. So with a system like this, hopefully we can we can reduce labor costs and increase production at the same time. That’s the hope. | Tory and Bryan stand facing each other as Bryan speaks. |
| Very good. Very good. Now one of the key features that we notice in this block is that the trees are have multiple stems. There are two main leaders growing off of each trunk in what we call a bi-axis system. Stefano, you are a world leading expert in multiple stem systems. What are some of the advantages that you see in growing a pear tree like this? | The camera angle shifts to show Stephano, and the text “Stephano Musacchi, Washington State University” appears on screen. |
| Sure Tory, so bi-ax 3 is kind of a nice way or multi-leader 3 is a kind of nice way to divide the vigor among a different leader or two leader like we have in a bi-axis. The effect is quite impressive because usually you double the number of shoots that the tree is having, the number of branches too, and you shorten the length of the shoot. So this is quite evident effect, especially also if you are using very vigorous rootstocks like the 87 and 97. So this is a very positive effect on vigor control. | The camera zooms in on Stephano as he speaks |
| So by splitting the vigor, that has a lot of advantages, right? | The camera shifts angles to show Tory and Stephano |
| Definitely. | |
| We associate vigor with (indistinct) and vigor is a factor in development of cork spot and those sorts of issues too. | |
| Yeah, and there is another big effect that is light and competition. So in this case, the root systems are competing because they are closer. At the same time, there is a lot of light interception by the tree because the canopy is completely exposed to the light. So this is where this system can be really efficient in improving the quality of the fruit too. | The camera briefly zooms in on just Stephano, and then zooms out to show the entire group again. |
| Super, super. So Bryan, can you tell us a little bit about the spacing? What rootstock are we using here? When it was planted? How old are these trees? | |
| Right now we’re in the fourth leaf block. These are planted on Old Home 97. They’re 6 by 12, so about 605 trees per acre. The leaders are spaced three feet by about the third wire, which is roughly about four feet above the ground. Then from there, they just go vertically three feet in between each leader. | The camera pans to make Bryan center frame as he speaks. |
| Okay so these are in their fourth leaf, and it’s really impressive to see there’s a sizable crop growing on them this year. What do you expect to pick this year in terms of the bins per acre? | The camera pans to show Tory as well as Bryan. |
| So this was our first planting. So when they were planted, they were planted as a nip boom but with a twin top. So it’s not a double butted tree. It was grown up, headed in the winter, and then another twin tops were grown up the next year. So when they were planted, there seemed to be a little bit of a transplant shock. So the growth out of the first year and even some of the second year wasn’t really ideal. However, when we move over to the third leaf tree, the bigger, they seem to do a lot better in the second year. So we’ve got 10 bin per acre in the third leaf and then over here on the fourth leaf we’ve got about 25 bins per acre. I would say every year from here on out, we could double that. We’ll probably cap her out around 70 bins an acre just to maintain size on Bartlett. | |
| So if we can, let’s talk a little bit about the planting and training of these trees in a little more detail. Bryan and Jorge, whoever wants to speak, can you tell us about what the trees look like when they were planted? What was the initial pruning and training done, and what were you doing to encourage growth in different parts of the tree? | The camera zooms in on Bryan and Jorge. |
| So, I guess planting is not really the first step. So the first step was installing the trellis and the irrigation. So we GPS mark it out with the tree planter, and then after that we installed the trellis system, and then we installed the drip and the irrigation system. So the irrigation system is much like a traditional apple system at this point, to where we can move the r10 sprinklers up to the top wire and have a pear wash system for psylla control. | |
| Great. | |
| After that, when everything’s installed, they hand plant with shovels. I usually pay them by the piece, and then when everything’s planted, they can turn on the irrigation immediately and they can water them that day. | |
| Okay, and what did the trees look like when you got them? What did you do to manipulate the trees once you got them in the ground? | |
| Well when we put the trees in the ground, they it looked not really good, like sad. But as soon as we put the drip, we put like 12 hours on after we planted, and after the few days they looked happy. They started shooting new leaves and flowers. | The camera pans slightly to frame Jorge and text appears on screen: “Jorge Andrade, Stemilt Orchard Manager”. |
| And these were (indistinct) bloom trees? | |
| So they were they were double top (indistinct) bloom trees. So what they usually did was, they headed it. And when you have six wires usually on a heading, a rule that we’ve been doing is, we’ve been selecting the wire. So if they were planted, and they were this tall above the cooling wire, they would be headed at the wire just to keep consistency between tree height and also moderate vigor. | Bryan moves towards the tree and gestures to the wire and grabs the tree at the point where it would be headed. |
| After that, we also started making–you can see kind of the click pruning that we did at planting. And these were made at planting, And then we got a flat break out of there which required zero tree training. So you can see quite a bit of that was done at planting. | The camera zooms in on the tree and Bryan holds a small branch on the bottom half of the tree. |
| Did you do anything else to encourage branching, any PGRs or anything like that? | The camera shot changes to show the entire group again. |
| So in the first leaf they use the double-sided Italian hand pruners, and they score directly above to get any kind of break. So you can actually see one here, you can see another one right here, and even there. So they did that in the first leaf. They did not spray any chromeline in the first leaf and the second leaf we did another pass, usually just on the one year growth. With this transitioning from the first to the second year, most of it’s done at the base of the current year’s growth. It seems to blind out at the base of the current year’s growth, just because there’s so much vigor as it’s growing. It’s much like a Fuji in that characteristic, to where it blinds out at the base of one year growth and then you’ll get a lot of breaks as the temperature seems to rise within the year. | The camera zooms in close to the tree, showing places where the tree was scored to encourage branching. The camera then zooms back out to show Bryan and Jorge. |
| Great, great. So looking at this block, there’s a lot of visual similarities between this and a lot of high density apple blocks that we see around the industry. What are some of the key similarities or the key differences? What do you have to do differently in a pear block like this, managing it on a day-to-day basis, versus apple? | The camera shifts to show the entire group again. |
| I would say that there’s a lot of differences more than there is similarities. So getting the vigor, you know, once you’ve got the vigor in a pear tree, getting it to settle down is really a tough thing to do. In Bartletts especially, when you’re dormant tree training, even in February, are extremely brittle and so when you’re trying to bend a branch over, oftentimes it’ll break out on you. | |
| Also some of the angles, where we try to leave it at a 35 or even a 30 degree angle just to try to promote fruiting, a lot of times the string will just slide and it’ll pop back up especially if there’s a pretty decent caliper to the one-year sucker size. | Bryan moves towards the tree and bends a branch to show a 35 degree angle. He then lets go of the branch allowing it to shoot back to its original position. |
| However when we go more horizontal, much like this example, we seem to get a decent amount of fruit buds there is still some blind wood here. That really just has to do with the tree being young and juvenile and pretty happy as far as growth characteristics go. | Bryan grabs a lower branch that is more horizontal and sow the fruit buds growing along it. |
| Once we tie it down, we’ll come in and we’ll re-head each tied branch. However what we try to do, depending on where the branch is situated, is we’ve been trying to select the top bud. So when we select the top bud, we get an extremely strong response, but then we get some softer breaks behind it, and so next year we’ll be able to capitalize on that by cutting the two breaks out and re-tipping that selecting the top bud. So then we’ll get a vigorous response and little breaks behind it and that’s kind of how we’re trying to combat the blind wood that you seem to have on 97. | Bryan points to the top fruiting bud on a particular branch. He points out the long shoot in the middle and smaller shoots to the sides. |
| Good and that probably distributes the vigor very evenly throughout the tree as well. | |
| Yeah, however it’s been a combination of Stefano’s quick pruning, but also just given the 12-foot row here. I mean if we had a 10-foot row, yeah, we probably wouldn’t need to do any kind of pre-training here. But since we have a 12 foot row, we have to make it three dimensional in some capacity. So tying down some of these bottom whirls if you may, and even allowing some of it to hang a crop and then flop over just so we get some tree training, that’s paid for in some aspect. Then we’ll re-head into it just to lock it into position kind of a mold and hold. | Bryan grabs a lower branch of the tree, and the camera pans down to show that it is tied downwards with twine. |
| It’s just kind of been a myriad of tree training, click pruning, and a combination of things just to try to capitalize on all the breaks. But when we do get a break, often times it’s quite a bit of vigor on 97. On our other planning on 87, less vigor and it seems to have more breaks on the base of that one year wood. | The camera zooms out to show Bryan next to the tree. |
| So if you have the chance to replant this block, would you do it any differently? | The camera pans to show the entire group again. |
| In this sand? No, 97 was a really good choice. Over there where we have the 87, it’s a lot of clay, and so if anything there we’d do cherries and apples, and we can deal with the over-vigor. So I would say really, depending on soil type, with this sand, it’s a good decision. Maybe a little bit closer, a 5 by 12 is what we have the 87s on and that looks pretty good. | |
| Have these trees filled their space to your satisfaction? Do you still want a little more fullness or are you ready to just start cropping the heck out of them at this point? | |
| So vertically, I would say that they’ve filled their space. I would say that, either coming out into the row, we could probably manifest. We could probably do that from the third wire up with click pruning. So I’d say that at this point, if we just continue the click pruning from, I guess that’s the third wire up, we probably don’t need to do any kind of tree training up there. And as far as tree training goes here, we’ve got some older wood in here that I think we can start working and pruning it into place. | The camera pans upwards to show the full height of the trees. Bryan gestures to the top third of the tree. |
| So Jorge, I’d be curious to hear if you or any of the folks that work on this farm have any feelings about working in this high density pear block versus an older pear block that you have across the road that’s more open center where you’d be working off ladders most of the time. How do your workers prefer for working between the two blocks? | The camera shot changes to show the entire group again. |
| Well, in my opinion, we like to use the platforms because it’s more easy. Like for example, over here to thin, we use the platform, that way we don’t have to use the ladder, and for tree training, pruning, everything is more easy. You just have to stand over here on the platform. For example, if you are pruning, you are doing this all day, and I think for me its more safe and at the same time is more cheap that way. You don’t have to spend too much money by the acre over here versus that block where you have to use the ladders because there are huge trees. Yeah, so I think everybody likes these trees. The only thing is that they can’t hide from the sun. Like right now, there’s not enough shade, but I think it’s more better with the platform. | Jorge walks towards the a tree and mimics the action of pruning. |
| Sure, and then how about spraying the block? How do you calibrate differently for this block versus your older pear block, and how quickly can you spray an acre or 10 acres of each block? | The camera shot changes to show the entire group again. |
| Well on this one, we spray on B1. It’s more fast, I can do more acres. In one hour and forty-five minutes, I can do four acres. The other, I have to I have to spend more time because there’s bigger trees than these ones. | The camera zooms in slightly to frame Jorge. |
| And you spray this at 100 gallons to the acre? What do you spray through the season? | |
| Yeah all the time we spray, every week, 100 gallons per acre. | |
| So you’re not spending so much time filling up the tank? | |
| No, it is more. We save a lot of money in there. | |
| And how’s the pest control in here versus other standard pear blocks? | |
| I came over here, and including the block on the right, we don’t have any big issues. I think we have a good field manager, and I think Bryan, he has a lot of experience with that. He helped me a lot with that, so I think right now, as you can see, we have a really clean fruit and we don’t have any problems with psylla or anything like that. | Jorge gestures to the fruit growing on the tree next to him which looks clean and unmarked. The camera zooms in on the fruit to show this more clearly. |
| Good, good. So you’re getting better penetration with your sprayer, you’re getting better coverage, you’re getting more value out of your chemicals that you’re putting in the tank, and getting better results overall. It sounds like that’s great. | The camera shot changes to show the entire group again. Bryan and Tory face each other. |
| So Bryan, obviously, planning a block like this takes a little more work and preparation and investment than a traditional freestanding block, with the trellis and irrigation all that sort of thing. How have the economics kind of penciled out on this? Can you give us an idea of your establishment costs and how long do you think it’s going to take you to pay off your planning costs and get the revenue positive in this block? | |
| So to get revenue positive, it’s probably going to be fairly comparable to an apple block. So the cost, as far as materials go, I mean your trees are half per acre, your trellis isn’t quite as bolstered, quite as strong as a an apple block is. However to come into full production, it’s going to take another year or even two. And even these younger pear crops, I mean how are they going to perform and store, you know? They’re probably not going to perform and create the revenue like it would on a younger apple block. So anywhere from that six to eight year time period for a full year return on investment is probably what we’re looking at here. | |
| Okay, and do you have a rough number you could share with us in terms of for the first year? | |
| So the first year was a little over at 20,000 an acre and that was in 2017 costs. So every year from then on out is right around that 12,000 to 13,000 an acre. | The camera pans to frame Bryan. |
| Okay, so your growing costs are comparable to what a lot of other pear growers have in there? | The camera pans back to the entire group. |
| They are, yeah. I mean, the nice thing about a planner system like this is, this year we started um some MaxCel thinning trials. They look really promising given the correct weather. So hopefully chemical thinning can yield a much more consistent result here. And then also hand thinning, which can be anywhere from twelve hundred to two thousand dollars an acre a year on Bartletts, is going to be hopefully cut in half with platforms and even chemical thinning. | |
| Vigor management obviously is important for this sort of system, which is helped, I assume, by having a split vigor between the two stems. What did you do to get these trees to fill their space so well? Were you doing some fertigation or what were your strategies for that? | The camera zooms in slightly to frame Bryan and Tory. |
| So fertigation started in the first leaf, and actually we’ve continued it in the fourth leaf just to fill the top two feet on the third leaf trees. We’ve kept it more of a balanced blend, so there’s N, P, and K in there. We usually start that around one to three inches of growth, continue that till late July, and usually we take the amount and we split it up into two applications per week. It’s always done through the drip. On the fourth leaf tree, we’ve gone for the most part with a straight nitrogen blend. So we don’t get too much K into this crop, and really trying to affect the pressure of the fruit harvest as little as possible. | |
| So Hannah, would you be willing to speak to us a little bit about Stemilt’s overall strategy for automation and labor management and how an orchard like this can fit into that strategy? | The camera zooms in to frame Hannah as she steps forward to speak to Tory. |
| Yeah, so here at Stemilt, on the whole, we’re definitely trying to move towards, as we’ve discussed, using more platforms, less ladders, and kind of higher density so we can decrease our labor costs. So moving to this sort of system is a way to make steps towards that. It’s essentially bringing the pears to where our apples are so we are more consistent across all of our ranches, and what kind of labor we’re using and needing. Also definitely, on the other side of it is being able to do accurate fruit counts so we know what’s coming into the warehouse. So on these flatter platforms of tree growth, it’s a lot easier to get more accurate counts than on your big 4d trees. | The camera zooms in to show only Hannah as she speaks. Text appears on screen: “Hannah Walters, Stemilt Research and Development”. |
| So one of the great things about this particular site is, it’s a great example of a private and public partnership in research, which is unique and maybe really a model for going forward for how we conduct applied research in the tree fruit industry. Hannah, could you speak a little bit about what Stemilt sees as the benefits of partnering with WSU or other research agencies? Then Stephano, maybe you can share how it’s beneficial to you to work with a leading private company like Stemilt? | The camera shot changes to frame Tory, Hannah, and Stephano. |
| Yeah, so in our research and development department at Stemilt, we’ve been working. Our goal and what we like to do is work with researchers around the area, especially with WSU. So one way to do that is to be able to host researchers on our plots, either, in Stephano’s case, planting the quince rootstock trial, or also just providing space for researchers to look at different trees or training systems or different programs that they’re doing research on. It’s really great for us because we’re able to see firsthand how the research can be applied, and firsthand what’s working and what’s not working. And we see how we could maybe implement some of that research into our management system straight away. So it’s a great relationship between WSU and Stemilt that we have, and we want to keep it going. | |
| Super. Stephano, what are the benefits for you for working with people like Hannah? | |
| The benefits are great because, you probably saw the plot that we that we have in here. So the plot looks gorgeous, and they did the management. So the there are several benefits for the university to be a partner of a private company. And especially in my case, if I can take a little bit personal, because I have been the first endowed chair here, and have a way to serve also my industry. And if I’m able to work with the private company, for me, its a kind of way to spread, what is the innovation that I can bring in the area directly to and apply to a situation. | The camera zooms in to show only Hannah and Stephano |
| This is a great example because Stemilt (indistinct) this wonderful plot where we see the nine different quinces, but at the same time, try to develop something new utilizing the background information that that was available. And this is how this orchard is being built. So based on what is existing and what can be applied now in the quince, is a kind of look for the future. I feel that, in this case, there is a huge benefit for the industry and for the university because we have to deal with good company that can transfer immediately the result of the research. Then we can build a kind of movement across all the industry that can change the paradigm of how we grow pears right now, or for the other research situations, like Hannah pointed out. So I see only advantage, honestly in working with the private company. I’m really pleased with Stemilt and other companies, because I have been hosted in other companies too, across the state. I think that it is the future also, because the cost of research is increasing. Probably the funds, we don’t know if they would be at the same level. Probably we need to be more, if I can say, wise in the use of funds to avoid as much we can repetition or duplication of things, and be more specific and productive on what we have right now. So that is my general feeling about the ongoing research. | |
| That’s great, so thank you very much Stefano for sharing your expertise with us today. Thank you Hannah, and also to Bryan and Jorge for hosting us in this really cool and exciting orchard of the future for the pear industry. Thanks for everything, we appreciate this partnership very much. | The camera zooms out to show the entire group standing in the orchard row. |
| Yeah, you’re welcome. It’s a pleasure. | |
| Thank you to everybody, and thank you to Stemilt. | |
| Music plays | A credit slide appears showing speaker, cooperator, and video production information. |
Link to Youtube Video: Stemilt Bi-axis Pear Block Virtual Tour
