![]() They grew nice trees, but raising them required a lot of diligence, and they eventually decided to go back to ordering commercial trees. (TJ Mullinax/Good Fruit Grower)Ĭhuck Rasch said Windy Ridge had an on-farm nursery about four decades ago. Rasch prefers to bench graft his nursery trees, like those seen here, because it helps give them a better start in Michigan’s short growing season. “We won’t outdo a professional nursery, but at the end of the day we get a nice tree,” he said. So far, the trees are in good shape, Kyle said. They have about 19,000 nursery trees in the ground. Their first transplants will be made this spring. Learning what it takesĪt Windy Ridge Orchards in Conklin, Michigan, Kyle Rasch and his father, Chuck, planted an on-farm nursery in spring 2021. Nesbitt said each on-farm nursery tree costs him between $4 and $5, compared to $8 to $12 per commercial tree. Their nursery plots supply about 40 acres of orchard trees per year for the farm that encompasses 700 acres of apples. Two years after budding, they transplant the trees to the orchard. During the following “grow-through” year, they raise the trees on a strict fertilizer, herbicide and copper program. They bud the trees in August or September, then cut off the trees above the buds the following spring. The Nesbitts plant rootstocks in their nursery plots in spring (usually Bud.10, Geneva 935, G.969 and G.41). You miss a copper spray, you can get fire blight.” “You miss a weed spray, the tree can be engulfed in weeds. ![]() “Timing is everything with a nursery,” he said. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing with more vigorous varieties, he said.įor growers considering on-farm nurseries, Nesbitt advised starting small and working through the growing pains. One drawback to the grow-through method: some transplant shock in the first year or two in the orchard. The nursery block they’re standing in was planted in spring 2020 - Fuji and Honeycrisp on Bud.10. ![]() From left, Cornell University physiologist Terence Robinson, extension specialist Mario Miranda Sazo and grower Shane Nesbitt discuss Nesbitt’s on-farm nursery during Cornell’s Lake Ontario fruit tour in Orleans County, New York, in August. The bigger trees fill space faster and crop earlier than the 1-year-old whips they used to transplant from nursery to orchard, said grower Shane Nesbitt. About 10 years ago, the Nesbitts started using the “grow-through” system touted by New York growers and researchers - leaving trees in the nursery an extra year to get them taller and more orchard-ready. Nesbitt Fruit Farms in Waterport, New York, has been growing its own nursery trees for about 25 years. He had to build or retrofit much of his own equipment to manage the nursery, including his own planter, tree digger and weed sprayer. Partyka orders mostly Budagovsky 9 rootstocks for his nursery, with more vigorous roots for his processing Taylor Romes. He also liked having an extra year to decide which varieties to bud. They needed more fresh varieties, and their processing trees were getting old, but Partyka said that spending $80,000 on new trees just wasn’t in the cards.Īn on-farm nursery was cheaper, and Partyka relished the challenge of growing his own trees. The Partyka family grows about 1,000 acres of grain, vegetable and fruit crops, including 80 acres of apples. Partyka and Sons Farms in Kendall, New York, planted its first on-farm nursery trees in 2016 and has close to 6,000 nursery trees now, he said. “The nursery has to be your priority,” said New York grower Scott Partyka. ![]() The growers said on-farm nurseries spread out establishment costs and are cheaper overall than commercial trees, but they require investing in specialized equipment and providing a lot of care and attention in order to succeed.
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