Tree fruit producers in New York state have the advantage of being near large population centers but must increase their efficiency of production to remain competitive. Our project is helping growers accomplish this by planting new high-density fruit plantings and by replanting older less productive orchards with more modern orchard systems. This is resulting in higher yields and quicker production which is helping revitalize the New York tree fruit industry.

Old, obsolete orchards and outdated varieties are hampering the competitiveness of New York tree fruit producers. In 2001 the New York apple industry developed a strategic plan with broad input from all segments of the industry which concluded among other things that New York tree fruit industry needs to modernize with new varieties and more competitive orchard production systems as well as rootstocks that have higher production efficiency and fruit quality to remain competitive in the world fruit market. The modernizing of the New York fruit industry has also been listed as a priority by the statewide Fruit Program Work Team (Fruit PWT) which has statewide stakeholder members. It has also been listed as a priority by the local advisory committees of the Lake Ontario Fruit Extension Program, the Hudson Valley Fruit Extension Program and the Northern NY Fruit Extension Program.

Since the mid 1980s researchers and extension personnel at Cornell`s New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva have been studying high-density plantings of first apple and later peach, pear, cherry and plum. In addition to increasing tree density, other factors related to early production have been studied including soil preparation, tree quality, irrigation, soil fertilization, fertigation and tree training and pruning. Combining positive results from studies of these factors has resulted in much higher production from young orchards, and better fruit quality and production from mature orchards. It is now common for fruit growers to plant ultra high tree densities and harvest a moderate size crop in the second year and a full crop by year 4. This has dramatically improved orchard efficiency and has allowed some growers to maintain constant production but farm far fewer acres.

The continual planting of higher and higher tree densities in new orchards has allowed New York tree fruit growers to remain competitive in the world market. Production has increased substantially and fruit quality has improved. In addition, labor efficiency is much better with the ultra high-density orchards. We estimate that profitability of new high-density orchards is 100-300 percent greater than the traditional low-density orchards. Without the movement to high-density orchards, New York tree fruit growers would be much less competitive in the world market and the size of the industry would have shrunk significantly. Although there are fewer acres planted to apples in New York than 30 years ago the total production has remained constant.

Improved profitability for fruit growers

Over the last 14 years the New York apple growers has provided funding every year through the grower research fund the New York Apple Research and Development Program.

• Steve Hoying (Cornell Cooperative Extension)
• Mike Fargione (Ulster County Cooperative Extension)
• Kevin Iungerman (Cornell Cooperative Extension)
• Alison DeMarree (Cornell Cooperative Extension)
• Alan Lakso (Dept. of Hort Sciences, Geneva)
• Gennaro Fazio (USDA-ARS, Geneva)
• Herb Aldwinckle (Dept. of Plant Pathology, Geneva)