Ridgefest 2025: Michigan apple growers hit the mark with orchard strategies

Innovative tricks of the trade took center stage in apple growers’ orchards during the annual Ridgefest, held July 17 near Kent City, Michigan.

Ridgeview Orchards’ Dan Dietrich used his Freeman Farm tour to review his two-leader, tall-spindle Honeycrisp, first planted in a 10-by-3 spacing in 2008 on a former McIntosh block.

“Our biggest mistake is our Honeys on (Bud) 118s (rootstock),” Dietrich told his audience.

The semi-dwarfing apple rootstock has made things “interesting,” Dietrich said. “With 118s, there’s a lot of summer pruning. Vigor at the top is very aggressive. We’ve been able to manage it. It’s been a very consistent crop, especially the Galas. You don’t get those ups and downs. It seems to be the same amount of bins every year.”

Bud 118 is known for its precocity (fruiting at a young age), vigorous growth and deep root system, which provides good anchorage and drought tolerance.

Spacing concerns

A block of Honeycrisp planted in 2019 features 10-foot spacing.

“The reason for going to 10 is to get a little more sunlight on Honeycrisp, and it’s a little easier to manage,” Dietrich said. “We’re doing more with hedging. We will come in here and hedge, and still do a little summer pruning behind it.”

The operation uses reflective Mylar plastic film on rollers. 

“We’ve found that by putting the Mylar at the center of the row, we get less sunburn than from it being underneath the tree,” Dietrich said. “The heat isn’t quite as intense in there. The issue is, once you drive on it, it’s junk. We’ve been doing every other row just because we pick three to four times. Once you drive on it with the box hauler, there’s nothing left.”

Ridgeview has been harvesting its crop using three Bin Bandit picking platforms.

Platform concerns

“It’s a lot of learning,” Dietrich said. “The biggest thing on picking platforms, for the most part, the guys are walking. Not so much when you’re strip-picking Galas or getting 50 bins an acre at once. But when you’re picking (Honeycrisp), sometimes it’s 20% of the fruit. We’re lucky if we get 50% (in one picking). So, we have to go through three times.”

Using the platforms has “kept our guys consistent. If we can hit five bins a day picking Honeys, we’re really good Honeycrisp picking. With a platform it doesn’t matter. We just drive faster. We can consistently stay at five bins a day.”

The farm is working with some other harvest platforms.

“Eventually, we’ll get things figured out to where picking from a machine is just making our people more efficient,” Dietrich said. “That’s the name of the game. You want to be able to pick if they’re 10% ripe or 90% ripe. If we can keep people efficient and get 20% more per guy, that’s a big deal.”

Dietrich acknowledged a challenge with using picking platforms is it requires “a lot of them.” They need to be cost-effective, also. “I haven’t found one that works perfectly yet, but they’re coming along.”

Late hedging 

The crews are hedging twice a year, including in late season following harvest to square up the trees. “And we’ll hedge Honeys about now, based on weather,” he said. “I like to hedge late because I don’t like the regrowth. I find it more helpful for sunlight later for helping color the fruit.”

The intent is to remove leaves to keep more calcium in the fruit.

“If you don’t get your tree squared up in the fall, you don’t want to hedge (in the summer),” Dietrich said. “If you can get more color and everything you need to get more good apples in the box, that’s the goal.”

Working with Michigan State University (MSU) researchers in his orchards, Dietrich is seeking answers on effective pollinators to use in solid blocks of Honeycrisp.

“There’s pollination in these Honeycrisp, but I don’t know if they work or what’s the perfect pollinator,” he said. “Why are we wasting 5% of our acreage on a pollinator that’s not doing any good? What is the right pollinator for the variety that needs it?”

MSU Tree Fruit Educator Emily Lavely told Ridgefest attendees the researchers are using bee vacuums to determine what kind of pollen is on the bees.

“What pollinators are matching Honeycrisp chronology, and when do those pollinators start working on those flowers in the orchards? We really are trying to understand what are the right pollinators for Honeycrisp and what kind of bee activity should we be looking for,” Lavely said in describing the ongoing project.

Multi-leader emphasis

New Leaf Orchards operator Bill Nyblad has focused on multi-leader tree training systems to spearhead his apple production for nearly a decade.

He showcased a nine-acre Premier Honeycrisp block on Geneva 30 rootstock that features single-, double- and triple-leader trees.

“People have caught on to multi-leader trees,” Nyblad said. “You can get a nice multi-leader tree from several different nurseries these days. I wouldn’t mind just buying a 1-year-old tree with any type of growth off of it and letting it grow for as cheap as you can give it to me because it’s going to grow.”

Nyblad believes a rootstock upgrade is unnecessary to make multiple leaders, as long as growers match the rootstock with their soil content.

“On a single leader, you can do two leaders on the same system,” said Nyblad, who has previously bought single-leader trees and laid them down horizontally in a “UFO style,” with the branches growing vertically. His practice is to remove branches, leaving two vertical leaders one foot apart. He seeks to keep 1-year-old wood within 8 to 12 inches of the tree. Beyond that, a hedge cut is made.

“It grows bigger with two leaders on the top,” he said. “If you go to three or four (leaders), you have to upgrade your rootstock.”

— Gary Pullano is a Michigan-based journalist and former managing editor for Great American Media Services possessing more than 45 years of industry experience. Contact him at garypullano@gmail.com.