New York Farm Viability Institute Website Press Releases 

PRESS RELEASE: October 4, 2006
Contact: Terence L. Robinson, Cornell University, 315-787-2227;
R. David Smith, New York Farm Viability Institute, Inc., 315-453-3823

NYFVI-Funded Apple Project Produces Fruitful Data for Growers

Regional farm-based rootstock performance trials funded by the New York Farm Viability Institute, Inc. are helping NY apple growers decide which rootstocks are and which are not suited to their farm. Planting rootstocks that show high production and disease and pest resistance potential can positively impact orchard businesses: planting rootstocks not suited to an area can cost growers thousands of trees and thousands of dollars.

In Northeastern NY, just seven miles from Canada, apple wholesaler Tre Green at Chazy Orchards hosted a large cold hardiness trial of rootstocks bred by James Cummins and Herb Aldwinckle at Cornell University’s NYS Agricultural Experiment Station at Geneva. Green says, “We have the most severe apple growing climate in New York State. Three years into our trial we experienced a unique series of winter weather events and lost thousands of trees orchardwide. Some died, some half-died, some survived. The trial here produced a wealth of data that is definitely valuable to anyone looking at planting where cold can be a problem.”

Winter 2003-04 losses in the Champlain Valley totaled more than $1.23 million, with per-tree long-term production loss estimated for three-to-five year old trees at $50 for a McIntosh and $100 for a Honeycrisp tree before the cost of replanting. This year Green harvested apples from one of the trial rootstocks more suited to cold climate.

In the Lake Ontario region, Ed Burnap of Burnap Fruit Farms and Farm Market in Sodus, NY, says, “These research trials are essential. For a grower to try any new variety or rootstock on a large scale on his own is very risky, particularly if the results for that rootstock are unknown for your growing region and your orchard management practices.”

Researchers are still testing Geneva series rootstocks, bred at Cornell University’s Geneva, NY, Agricultural Experiment Station, and planted in Burnap’s orchards in 1997. Burnap says he is just now becoming confident that the rootstock varieties planted 10 years ago will be a profitable crop. He estimates the cost of investing in even a ¼-acre trial on his own as “too much.”

The trial data for yield, fruit size, tree size, survival, disease resistance, cold hardiness, and dwarfing shows growers the rootstocks’ advantages and deficiencies. Dwarfing rootstocks were also tested at the Geneva Agricultural Experiment Station for fire blight resistance because losses of entire apple orchards can occur if rootstock is highly susceptible to the disease.

“The final data showed that the best of the Cornell-bred rootstocks were better than the existing rootstocks in the overall assessment of production, tree survival and yield efficiency. The Cornell rootstocks also have resistance to the fire blight and crown rot diseases,” says project leader and Cornell Horticulture Professor Terence L. Robinson.

“Growers need compelling data to show the advantages and disadvantages of new rootstocks before making the decision to plant new rootstock varieties in their orchards. Field trials on growers farms help commercial nursery operators and apple growers make the all-important decision about which rootstocks will and will not improve orchard performance before they spend money to plant,” Robinson says. “Four of the Cornell-Geneva rootstocks evaluated by the NYFVI-funded project have important commercial potential.”

The New York Farm Viability Institute, Inc. is known for responding directly to producer-identified needs. The apple rootstock project was requested by the stakeholder-advisors of Cornell’s Northeast New York Commercial Fruit Program, Hudson Valley Regional Fruit Program, and Lake Ontario Fruit Program. For more information on the apple rootstock project, contact Terence L. Robinson, Cornell University, 315-787-2227.

The New York Farm Viability Institute, Inc. is a farmer-led, independent not-for-profit corporation that invests in innovative research and education projects designed to benefit NY’s agricultural and horticultural production enterprises. For more information, contact the New York Farm Viability Institute, 159 Dwight Park Circle, Suite 104, Syracuse, NY 13209, 315-453-3823, www.nyfarmviability.org. # # #