by Gary Mount
Not long ago, at the beginning of winter, I had time to reflect on our winter work here at Terune Orchards. We also are having the time of getting ready to celebrate our 50th anniversary at the farm we started here in 1975. And things are now sure different than they were. Nearly 100 percent of our original purchase had been planted in apples. Big trees. About 24 feet tall. And by the way, the trees where Terhune visitors now park are about 18 to 20 feet tall. These trees were planted at 30 trees per acre. Over the past years trees have been removed and been replaced by other crops such as cherry, pear, peach, asparagus, blueberry, strawberry, flowers, blackberry , as well as by newer, more compact plantings of apples.
Finding the right types of ladders for pruning, thinning, and picking was difficult, 22 feet long was needed, strong but light enough to be carried from tree to tree. I had a favorite type of ladder made in New York, expensive, hard to find. And often damaged by trucking companies during delivery. Despite the negatives these ladders were what we had to have. Pruning starts in December and finishes in April. Hard work–not so safe. In fact, once a curious driver ran off Cold Soil Road and knocked a worker from his ladder. Fortunately, no injury. But an unusual safety problem. I have replaced trees over the years but my wife Pam, asked that I remove no more big trees, save them for romance. Luckily, I have listened. The remaining big trees make a nice area for wine sales. We call it our wine orchard.
This winter has been a cold one. Fortunately, apple trees can withstand the near 0 temperatures that we have had. Blueberries, grapes, peach and blackberries are in the category of “maybe”. We will wait and see. Too low winter temperatures can kill the fruit buds on these crops that are awaiting spring. Our pruning of these crops will be guided by careful analysis of possible bud damage. Fortunately, Daughter Reuwai and her group of sharp eyed helpers will assume this task. The past five to eight years damage was not so bad. Other times were severe. One winter, for example, ended our growing of Merlot grapes. All of the Merlot plants were killed. Such is farming. Fortunately, we grow a great variety of crops with a great variety of winter hardiness.. I’m often asked about winter damage to our crops. I answer as above.
Even though the big trees are mostly gone, there are still medium heights to be pruned. We have recently purchased a four wheel drive self-propelled platform made by the ORSI company. From Italy, so great. We have found that Italian manufacturers are the most clever in the whole world. Durability, not so much. We have had our problems. But all together, we get a lot of use out of our ORSI. The ladder and platform story is not, however, over. We have found new uses. Cherry, Blueberry, BlackBerry and Grape need to have bird netting stretched over the rows every year. As the crops ripen, bird damage becomes unacceptable. Cherries also need a plastic cover to keep rain from cracking the skins of the cherries as they ripen. The wooden ladders are not suitable. We cover 2 acres of blueberry, 3 acres of cherries and 9 acres of grapes every year using our ORSI!