Seventy years of support and partnership
The 70-year partnership between WSU and the state’s tree fruit industry includes hundreds of success stories like the orchard sunburn sensor.
 L-R: Jay Brunner, director of the WSU Tree Fruit Research and Extension Center in Wenatchee; Brent Milne, Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission member; Ray Fuller, organic tree fruit grower. |
Growers and scientists working hand-in-hand have led Washington to the top in terms of tree fruit sales. The annual economic impact of the tree fruit industry is around $6 billion, by far the highest of any agricultural product. The state is the largest producer of apples, pears and sweet cherries, both fresh and processed, in the U.S. Washington consistently grows more than half the apples in the country, and well over three-quarters of its pears and sweet cherries. Around one-third of Washington’s fresh fruit is exported. The Washington apple is known and respected around the globe as an icon of quality.
The researcher-grower partnership didn’t happen by accident. At the urging of the Washington state Horticultural Association, the state legislature established an experiment station in Wenatchee in February 1937 with an appropriation of $62,500 and a clear message to focus on tree fruit. The TFREC has since become the hub of a statewide tree fruit research and extension program led by the CAHNRS Agricultural Research Center and WSU Extension.
Since the TFREC’s inception, researchers have focused on apples, pears and sweet cherries, along with some investigation of apricots, peaches and plums. Their study includes all phases of orchard culture, pest control, fruit harvest and handling, fruit maturity, grading and packaging as they relate to the basic sciences--plant physiology, entomology, plant pathology, soil science, horticulture, economics and biochemistry.
Results
TFREC entomologists pioneered Integrated Pest Management by helping growers find pesticide alternatives or supplements to control a variety of pests from mites to codling moth. Many say there wouldn’t be an organic tree fruit industry in the state had it not been for the research of current and former TFREC Directors Jay Brunner and Stanley Hoyt, respectively. Brunner’s development of a way to use pheromones to disrupt codling moth mating and Hoyt’s initiation of biological control of mites allow orchardists to manage these devastating pests and still grow healthy organic crops.
WSU apple breeder Bruce Barritt is working with new CAHNRS faculty on bioinformatics and genomics to use datamining techniques to identify and isolate genes that carry desirable fruit characteristics.
Mitigating what happens to fruit after it’s harvested is another strength of the program. Researcher Chang-Lin Xiao studies post-harvest fungal diseases in apples and pears to determine their relationship to handling and storage conditions. He’s discovered that many problems begin in the orchard even though they don’t manifest until after harvest. WSU Extension specialist Gene Kupferman works closely with the fruit packing industry in Wenatchee on issues surrounding the use of chemicals in postharvest storage and packing.
Sustaining success
The Washington State Tree Fruit Research Commission funds much of the research WSU scientists conduct at the TFRE C. Local growers used their own funds to create the Commission in 1969, and currently assess themselves for each ton of fruit produced, which is used to fund a small staff and approximately $3.5 million worth of research annually, most of it performed by WSU faculty.
“The tree fruit growers of the state have always been an innovative lot and always wanted to be more effective and efficient in their operations,” said Brent Milne, a third-generation tree fruit grower. He is assistant manager of the Wenatchee-based McDougall & Sons Inc. orchard and packing company and a WTFRC board member. “The WTFRC was formed by some pretty exceptional people who had a bigger vision for the industry.”
Both Milne and Fuller consider their relationship with WSU a true partnership. “WSU is invaluable at keeping us on the right track into the future,” said Milne, who also is a WSU alumnus. At any given time, WSU scientists have numerous projects underway at Fuller’s orchard. “We go to them. They come to us. There’s no dividing line,” he said.
Another key partner for the tree fruit industry in Washington is the USD A. Scientists with the ARS are co-located at the WSU TFREC and work closely with WSU researchers.
“On the whole, what we do is complementary to what the WSU researchers do—nothing competitive,” said Jim Mattheis, ARS laboratory leader, WSU alumnus and plant physiologist specializing in fruit quality and fruit ripening. “And that has not happened by accident. We work hard to maximize the resources we have.”
Jim Hazen, executive director of the Washington State Horticultural Association, said the entire partnership has given Washington growers a competitive edge.
“The individuals in the association are very forward thinking because of that research base,” he said. “It helps them see around corners. For example, the ARS and WSU played a key part in identifying the elements that define quality in tree fruit—that has helped hold our position in the world market.”
Labor is biggest challenge
When asked to identify the largest issue Washington tree fruit growers will soon face, Fuller and Milne don’t hesitate. “Labor,” they answer in unison. Currently, both growers say they’re managing. But it’s getting more and more difficult. “We’re still harvesting a crop,” Fuller reports, “but the labor shortage mostly means we may not be getting the fruit picked at the optimum time or we can’t get apples and pears thinned because we’re competing with the cherry harvest.”
WSU researchers are working with growers on many fronts to tackle the issue.
“We just hired a project manager to help us project how much labor we’ll need in the future, where we’ll get it, and how much housing we’ll need,” said Milne.
An evolving consideration on this front is the changing dynamics of the workforce. What used to be either an all-male or family occupation for migrant workers is now primarily held by second generation migrant females whose spouses are working at higher paying jobs.
Growers are also concerned about harsh working conditions. “We’re trying to make the orchard work easier on the body,” Milne said.
For example, the “fruiting wall” type of orchard planting system results in trees so close together and uniformly shaped that orchard workers can pick much more efficiently. In many cases, two feet separate individual trees rather than the traditional 10 to 12 feet, and a row is just two feet deep. The area between rows has been reduced from 18 to 10 feet. Pickers no longer have to climb tall ladders or reach deep into the canopy for a piece of fruit. The result is less stress on workers’ bodies and a shorter, more cost-effective harvest.
Growers hope that the lowered stress on workers and increased efficiency will encourage them to think about expanding their job skills. “In the future with the advent of more robotic technology, an orchard worker will really become a skilled technician who can operate machinery and repair it in the field,” Milne said.
Both Fuller and Milne agreed there are significant barriers to complete mechanization of tree fruit harvest. “Our products are fragile,” Fuller said. Especially when compared to rough-and-tumble citrus, apples, cherries and pears have to be picked with a minimum amount of force and can’t be dropped without damage.
“We’re facing more competition in the marketplace,” Fuller said. “We have to have higher quality. That means training orchard workers to be more selective with what they pick, more careful about how they pick—all of that.”
“We’re looking for the quantum leap” in labor management, said Milne.
That’s why, Fuller and Milne said together, the “working partnership” with WSU is “invaluable.”
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Connections Contents
CAHNRS Kernels - Videos: Cougars and rabbits and bears, oh my! Plus: fashion show photos, 4-H kids, Logger Sports, and bioplastics from bacteria.
Special feature: Tree fruit research at WSU
- The Sunburn Doctor
- Pioneers of IPM
- New Orchard is Big Lab
- Searching the Genetic Landscape
- Organic Tree Fruit
- Food Safety
- A Rotten Problem
Web exclusive: in the depths of the Holland Library archives we discovered two lost manuscripts written in the early 1950s by tree fruit research pioneer Fred Overly: "From Whence Came: The Varieties of Fruit We Are Now Growing" and "History and Development of Apple Production in Washington."
A Trace of History: LA Students to Design, Build Display Garden
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