Crop Load Management in the Oregon Heritage Farms Orchard

Even though bloom has ended, the work never stops here at the farm! In order to help us manage crop load, beginning during bloom, we measure fruitlet size. Thank goodness for electronic calipers because we (meaning Robbie, pictured below) has to measure 375 fruitlets per tree on 15 trees in each of our 12 blocks. That’s 67,500 measurements each time!

This helps us determine the percentage of fruit that was pollinated, which ones will continue to mature, and how many apples we have left on the tree. It can also help predict when the fruit will be ripe and ready to eat.

We are excited to see these little fruitlets become delicious Oregon Heritage Farms apples!