On the ultimate day of the Worldwide Fruit Tree Affiliation’s annual assembly in Yakima, Washington, Feb. 14, the group took a break from orchard innovation and know-how talks to honor members for his or her important contributions to the trade.
Tory Schmidt of the Washington Tree Fruit Analysis Fee introduced the IFTA Lifetime Achievement Award to his longtime colleague, Tom Auvil.
“Tom is a person whose lifelong dedication has considerably influenced the tree fruit trade,” Schmidt mentioned. Auvil grew up within the Auvil Fruit Co. orchards in Central Washington, working along with his father and uncle, then purchased his personal orchards after school. His work with the analysis fee “evaluating sprayers, working irrigation trials, testing rootstocks, and plenty of different initiatives” have made a “lasting influence” on the trade, Schmidt mentioned.
Auvil joined IFTA in 1985 and embraced the chance to journey and study from horticulturists around the globe.
“I at all times treasured the chance to stroll down the corridor and ask Tom a query. If he didn’t know the reply, he’d give me his opinion, too,” Schmidt mentioned, including that Auvil is thought for his passionate perspective on many points, together with scion rooting and sprayer droplet measurement.
Auvil thanked the “IFTA household” for the dignity and for “placing up with a few of my speaking factors” through the years.
Different honorees included:
—Mauricio Frias for the 2024 Excellent Extension Educator Award.
—Stefano Musacchi for the 2024 Excellent Researcher Award.
—Dave Gleason for the 2024 Excellent Grower Award.
—Jeff Cleveringa for the 2024 Business Service Award.
Additionally throughout Wednesday’s convention classes, Musacchi, endowed chair of tree fruit physiology and administration at Washington State College, shared insights from current apple rootstock trials, and Cleveringa, chair of the Washington Tree Fruit Analysis Fee know-how committee, shared an replace on robotic harvest trials. Each processes will take extra time than growers may hope to make progress.
“You want 5 to 10 years to guage rootstocks within the discipline,” Musacchi mentioned. “You possibly can pay a excessive invoice should you brief this time.”
Breeders, nurseries, researchers and growers might want to collaborate and share data to assist the trade make the most effective rootstock/scion/website matches with the brand new rootstock choices being launched, he mentioned.
Cleveringa shared photographs of a Kanzi block the place the superior.farm robotic harvester carried out trials in 2023. He calls it a 2.5D cover.
“It’s not fairly 2D, however we’re working to get there and attempting to maintain our yield excessive,” he mentioned. Operating a defoliator by means of the block earlier than the harvest robotic helped, he mentioned.
—by Kate Prengaman