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[Claude Jolicoeur <cjoli@gmc.ulaval.ca>]

This is quite impressive, Dennis.
I wish you long time growth for your orchard.
Claude

A 18:56 07.10.25 -0500, vous avez écrit : 
>>>>
Claude,


All of our Honeycrisp are on B9, M9 and M26 rootstock and the oldest trees are about 3 years old.  Over the last 3 years we have planted approximately 500 trees per year and will now be adding about 500 more in 2008.  The M26 rootstock trees planted in year 1 are about 6-7 feet tall and yielded most of the 80 bushels with the younger trees yielding much less.  We projected about 2 bushels to the tree on the tall spindle system we are using with approx 750 trees/acre.  On your typical tall spindle the max yield in field tests is about 1,000 bushels/acre from trees spaced 4-5 feet and row spacing of 10-12 feet with tree density being any where from 750 to 1,000/acre.  The advantage is earlier fruiting, minimal pruning and no ladder picking.


We projected around 4,000 bushels at full maturity and about 90 days of inventory which is what we need for our season.    And Honeycrisp is one of the best storing apples there is.  I have stored some in RA storage at 34 degrees for 6 months and they were as crisp at the end of the 6 months as they were when stored.  


Our total sales have doubled since 2004 and are still growing.  This season we are 35% above last season, but we ran out of apples on October 10 last season since we had an off year crop wise.  This season we had a bumper crop and will have only a few hundred bushels left at the end of the season.   
Dennis Norton
Royal Oak Farm Orchard