Photo by Tom Walker
Steve Brown
Sometimes it’s the simple things that make the most difference.
“You have to count,” says Steve Brown, from his award-winning orchard in Summerland. Indeed, he counts apples on the tree in the spring, how much fertilizer he applies, how much water goes to each tree, which row the apples came from as they go into the bin at harvest and what they are like when they come out for shipping at pack-out time.
Steve is an apple producer and, like any other successful businessman, he works constantly to fine tune each piece of his production line.
“When I get my pack-out records from BC Tree Fruits (BCTF) I can go back and look at who picked the bin, and which row it came from,” says Steve. “Then I can look at my management records and see what it took to produce that fruit.”
Hopefully that pack-out will be the magic double play of 80 bins of size 88’s to an acre.
Steve’s home orchard is around 12 acres and he leases 7 acres. He grows Ambrosia, Gala and Pink Lady. Steve’s success as a grower led BCTF Field Services staff to recommend him this year for the BCFGA-sponsored Golden Apple Award. “We look for an orchard that shows superior management skills,” says Charlotte Leaming BCTF Field Services. “Steve’s management really stands out. He was also one of the first to extend his trellis system.
The first thing you notice about Steve’s orchard is that the trees are tall, ranging up to 14 feet. “Land in the Okanagan is really expensive, but the air is free,” he says, only half joking. “I think with good management, I can get enough light down through the canopy, particularly with Ambrosia, to get the color that I need at harvest.”
Success with those taller trees starts with pruning. “Pruning is one of the biggest bangs you can get for your buck,” says Steve. “If you don’t do a good job you’ll be chasing it for the rest of the season.”
“We start with a hard pruning to get the number of fruit buds down and then follow up with a light spray thinning,” says Steve. “We should only need to hand thin as a touch up.”
Then they count. “It doesn’t matter how many times you have done this,” Steve maintains. “You still have to count. We can all look at a tree and say yeah that’s about right and when we count it, there are actually 200 apples there.”
At 2’ by 10’ spacing, and 80 apples that are size 88 per tree, he should see the 80 bins per acre that he is aiming for. “Because I ship to the house (BC Tree Fruits), I know what they want, and size and quality go together.”
Like many orchards, Steve says his soil varies significantly across his blocks, particularly where he’s done some bulldozer contouring. While he does do soil sampling he has an easy method to “see” where the soil changes across a block.
“I go through my orchard in the fall at senescence. It is one of the best times to tell, as the less healthy trees drop their leaves earlier,” he explains. “I have two spray cans to mark the start (yellow) and the end (green) of a patch of less vigor.”
After a basic fertigation program (fertilization through irrigation lines) for the whole orchard, Steve goes through with a spreader. “I turn it on at the yellow mark and off at the green.”
Watering is adjusted according to the Farm West evapotranspiration (ET) rates, correlated with moisture holding data that Steve gathered several years ago using soil probes.
“So, I know when the ET rate is this, I have to put down this.”
Steve is also improving his soil using compost that he makes with horse manure and wood chips.
Tracking at harvest is the final piece of production that pulls all the information together Steve says. “All my rows are labeled and numbered,” he explains. “When a picker has filled a bin I have them write the row number and their name on a bin tag stapled to the bin.” That bin tag stays on through to the packing house and when Steve gets his receipt he pulls the bin tag and staples the two of them together. When he gets a pack-out record he can combine the two pieces of information to determine which quality of apples came from which parts of his orchard.
“The thing that has blown me away after doing this for a number of years is the variability in my orchard,” says Steve. “The feedback has opened my eyes.”
Two identical Brookfield Gala blocks are an example. “They are on the same rootstock, were planted at the same time, and have the same trellis and watering system,” Steve explains. “On one block we were getting 100’s and on the other side 72’s.”
He says that the feedback from his records becomes increasingly important as he moves to manage more acreage and does less actual work in the orchard himself. But transferring that information to employees is a key.
“They might be surprised when I tell them to thin an area back to 60 apples per tree, even though we just settled on 90 over there,” says Steve. “But in these rows 60 apples is all the trees can take.”
Climbing the Innovation Ladder
As a former fieldman for BC Tree Fruits, Summerland apple grower Steve Brown is always looking for ways to push ahead. “I’ve got a couple of acres of Pink Lady’s,’ says Steve. “It’s like an investment portfolio. A bit of a higher risk gives the chance of a higher return.”
For Steve the extra work has been worth it. “They need more pruning and leaf pulling, but when I cost it out, it’s still makes sense,” he says. They are a very late harvest, he points out. “Last year I had to put one day’s pick into my shop, as it would have been too cold for them to stay outside”.
He’s itching to try out the new DAS (Decision Aid System). “At Field Service, I used to get the raw data that the system is based on and I’m really looking forward to seeing how the have put it all together.”
You can also check out his four-part picking video on You Tube, sponsored by the Ambrosia council.
Trying new rootstocks has turned out well. On recent replants, Steve went with some new G 41’s and G 11’s that he brought in from the US. “They’ve got some great attributes,” he says. “They are fire blight resistant, and quite replant disease resistant. I didn’t have to fumigate.”
“They also grow like weeds,” Steve says. “I’m hoping to be able to leave 90 apples on there. Perhaps I can aim for 90 bins an acre?”