Aug 6, 2012
Perpendicular V works for Ohio peach orchard

Ohio is a tough place to grow fruit, but a great place to sell it.

So said Rich Eshleman, owner of Eshleman Fruit Farm in Clyde, Ohio.

The “tough” part comes from Ohio’s large population. It’s not easy to find good fruit-growing sites when housing is eating them up. Still, all those people like to eat fruit, too. The situation could be worse.

“You make the money where you sell,” Eshleman said. “You don’t make any money from growing it.”

Eshleman, 66, started growing fruit on 40 acres in north-central Ohio with his wife, Betty, in 1977. Today, they farm 150 acres of apples, 50 acres of peaches, 6 acres of sweet cherries, 6 acres of apricots (grown in Catawba Island on Lake Erie to help regulate temperatures) and 3 acres of plums, according to the farm’s website.

The farm, which has its own cold and controlled-atmosphere storage facilities, normally produces 40,000 bushels of apples and 18,000 bushels of peaches per year. But like other orchards in the Midwest, 2012’s early spring warmth followed by freezes hit Eshleman Fruit Farm hard. It lost about 95 percent of its cherries, 80 percent of its apples and 25 percent of its peaches. On the plus side, the plums were looking “pretty thick” and the apricots had a full crop, Eshleman said.

Most of the farm’s fruit goes to wholesale, with about a quarter selling direct from the farm via retail market and u-pick, he said. The farm also hosts school and senior tours and other agritourism activities, according to its website.

Perpendicular V

On June 27, Eshleman hosted the morning session of the Ohio Produce Growers & Marketers Association’s Summer Tour & Field Day. He showcased a block of peach trees planted in the perpendicular V system, speaking highly of the perpendicular V and noting that his only regret is that he didn’t start using it sooner.

“I just didn’t pay any attention to the potential,” Eshleman said. “If you’re going to grow peaches in the Midwest, consider growing them like these trees.”

Sunlight isn’t as intense in the Midwest as it is out West, so the yield per acre is generally lower. Perpendicular V, which he said provides a “quick bearing surface for very good yields,” can remedy that. The trees get into production quickly, get good early yields and are easy to manage, he said.

“I like working in this orchard more than any of the other peach orchards.”

The peach trees Eshleman showcased are about 6 years old.

“I don’t know how long these trees will last,” he said. “I’m hoping they’ll last 20 years. That’s longer than most of the open-center trees.”

In the perpendicular V, he said, growers want to maintain two main trunks. The fruiting limbs grow off the trunks and should be kept as close to them as possible. The point of the system is to build the fruiting surface so that fruit is growing on new wood as the older wood is being cut off.

On older peach plantings, it’s easy to get 100 bushels per acre. However, get past 200 bushels per acre and it’s tough to maintain good size because they don’t have the built-in fruiting surface required for big yields, he said.

Thirty acres of Eshleman’s peach trees (and a few acres of plums) are planted in perpendicular V; the rest are open-center trees, which he plans to replace with perpendicular V when they get old enough. His newer apple plantings are tall spindle, which he’d like them all to be one day. There are few negatives to that system, he said.

For more information, visit www.eshlemanfruitfarm.com

By Matt Milkovich, Managing Editor




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