UFO's Return

UFO’s Return! I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

Yesterday we introduced you to the UFO or upright fruiting offshoots in cherry production. Matt Whiting, Associate Professor with WSU’s IAREC discusses where the idea came from.

WHITING: Well the idea behind the UFO architecture came from - in large part it was my frustration with the existing or older training systems and our inability to really articulate the fundamental rules behind pruning and training in those systems. There was always so much debate about just the pruning process that we saw a clear need to try and make that artwork more scientific and move towards a structured architecture.

The idea seems to have taken hold.

WHITING: I’ve been really pleased with the adoption across the industry and in fact across the nation and even internationally. I think one of the reasons for that is our collaboration with the industry in the development of the architecture. I think that’s really hastened the adoption because now we’ve got growers talking to growers.

Whiting says that since this system is being so well accepted they are discussing the idea of mechanization with companies in hopes of relieving some of the labor stress. But the question remains...how is the fruit quality and size?

WHITING: Those are really the two fundamental issues from the outset. Number one being well if you restrict the canopy volume to being a very planar two-dimensional structure, are we reducing yields and w’ve answered that conclusively and in terms of fruit quality - we’ve got orchards now that are going into their seventh year and the quality from those blocks has been as good as the quality you get from any other architecture.

That’s today’s Fruit Grower Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.