03/01/06 Orchard operations of the future, Pt.3

Travis Allan primarily deals with growing cherries. But he is among a group of growers that believe that the cherry orchard of the future could be just as profitable as it is now. ALLAN: I think what we could do is we could plant anywhere in Washington State, because of our current cherry varieties we have allows everybody to be in most markets. But the most profitable I think will be in the states will still be above 600 in elevation and below 900 feet in elevation. But part of Allan's concerns pertaining to the orchard operations of the future is finding a cherry rootstock that is an improved industry standard, similar to 337's in apples. ALLAN: I've spent a lot of time messing around with these Gisela rootstocks and it's been sort of a frustrating and disappointing experience from the point of inconsistency, and also that I really feel for the nursery groups that I work with of not able to get a take that they wish and then its also frustrating to me because I designated acreage for those and then not been able to plant them. Allan acknowledges that future training systems will advance the harvest, and produce a more manageable orchard, but he is not convinced maintenance of such systems will be mechanized. ALLAN: Also, all the systems that we work with in the future will need to be platform ready so we can do training, pruning, and harvest. And in harvest, I'm not totally convinced about a full mechanical harvester because I like the stem on the cherries. I think it adds something to the marketing. So most of the harvest that I'm looking for is a picker assist type harvesting. More on orchard operations of the future in a future program.