Training trees for better crop, easier harvest

Golden View orchard owner Glen Manderson, of Roxburgh, is trying a different way of growing his new Samba cherry trees, by tying the lower branches down and along to form low-growing hedges. That will make picking easier and increase crop tonnage. He is helped by son Aidan (13) and daughter Neleah (10). Photo by Yvonne O'Hara.

Mr Manderson, who owns the 4ha Golden View orchard, has bought 500 early fruiting Samba cherry trees from a Cambridge nursery to replace a block of 90-year-old trees and has spent the past couple of weeks planting them.

''The Samba is an early Christmas cherry and is meant to be the cherry that replaces Dawson,'' he said.

Following research on the internet, he decide to try a different way of training the trees so they would grow to form a hedge, rather than as stand-alone trees. They are planted 2.5m apart rather than the standard 5m and by tying the lower branches with string and anchoring them to the ground, he is training them to grow down and along.

Once the lower branches are fixed, the higher ones will then be tied, and the trees eventually form a low-growing cherry hedge. He said the denser planting and training would give him advantages over the traditional methods, including allowing more light to the fruit and getting a bigger fruit crop.

''There is a bit more work involved [initially] but I am expecting to get more tonnage with this system.

''It will also mean easier picking.''

Pickers could walk along the rows to harvest the fruit, and only needed low ladders to reach the higher branches.

''I think that we will pick 80% of the crop under 7ft [2.1m] high.''

He said other growers in the Teviot Valley were trialling a similar system, but their trees were planted at a 45deg angle and faced north. As his rows were too short to do that, he chose the other system.

He said they would produce a small amount of fruit this season but within three years would have a commercial-sized crop. He intends to buy another 500 trees next year.

He intends to underplant the cherries with pumpkins and has put his children Aidan (13) and Neleah (10) in charge of those.

They also run the stall for him, attend farmers' markets with him and enjoy spending hours sitting in the trees eating the fruit.

In addition to the cherries, the former Manawatu dairy farmer grows apricots, plums, greengages, nectarines and peaches, as well as raspberries and boysenberries.