093: Orchard Care & Apple Storage w/Colin Scott | MA

Colin Scott grew up learning how to care for apples on his parents, Edward and Janice, orchard. The orchard was purchased in 1954. Today Colin is running the orchard and sells his apples at the Chelsea Market in eastern MA. E & J Scott Orchard also has apricots, blackberries, blueberries, cherries, grapes, nectarines, peaches, pears, plums, quince, raspberries, & strawberries. They have farm stands in Buckland and Goshen during the season. Their main store is in Ashfield, MA and is open Sat & Sun 10-6 July through May. Organic duck eggs from their heritage breed Ancona ducks are also available upon request.

We begin this chat with Colin inside one of the storage rooms.

What affects the Apple's ripping?

• temperature
• ethylene gas - apples off gas
• Apples are placed in a CA room (Controlled Atmosphere) where both temperature, oxygen and the off gases are controlled.

If apples don't have oxygen they don't ripen. Colin and I discuss the "delicate" process of storing apples or what he called "putting them to sleep".

Apple storage tip: Take your apples out of the refrigerator every once in a while and let them off gas. That will help them last a bit longer.

Next in this chat we talk about

• the beginnings of the orchard and what they grew and where they are going with the growing cider market
• Root Stock for grafting a tree - dwarf or standard
• Shifting his market to cider apples
• What do you look for in a root stock

"The idea behind grafting is to take the variety that you want and put it on the root stock you want. The vigor of the variety contributes to the size of the tree."

The numbering system of the root stock defines the size of the tree or a percentage of the size of the tree

• M rootstock 9, 11, 18, 26 what does that stand for? If you put a Macintosh on standard tree rootstock and a Macintosh on a 26, you would get 30 -40-% of the standard one. A M118 or M111 are going to be 6--70% the size, which means they will be almost as big as a standard tree.

Today Colin is using Geneva root stock, because he is finding it resistant to Fire Blight. A nasty disease that can kill the tree.

Geneva root stock numbering system is random too. Colin is using Geneva 41 & 935. They will be 30-40% of the standard tree. He uses a bench graft on his root stock.

The secret to grafting per Colin

• Lining up the cambium layers
• Getting it airtight

We also chat pruning an apple tree, especially a tree that you are attempting to revive after years of neglect.

Contact E & J Scott Orchard

email: mailto:cscott9487@gmail.com

web: http://www.farmfresh.org/food/farm.php?farm=3762

Mentions in this chat

Smart Freshing

Oesco, Inc - professional grade supplies for orchards and cidermakers.

• link to the bladder press sold by Oesco http://www.oescoinc.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=bladder+press

076: Lou and Sue Chadwick | Grafting with Second Chance Farm, MA

086: Cider Press | Make Cider

Ask for the following 8 #CiderGoingUP Campaign cider supporters - By supporting these cider makers, you in turn help Ciderville.

1. Kurant Cider - Pennsylvania : listen to Joe Getz on episode 14
2. Big Apple Hard Cider - NYC : listen to Danielle von Scheiner on episode 35
   
3. Oliver's Cider and Perry - Herefordshire/UK ; listen to Tom Oliver on episode 29
4. Santa Cruz Cider Company - California : listen to Nicole Todd on episode 60
5. The Cider Project aka EthicCider- California
6. Albermale CiderWorks : listen to Chuck Shelton on episode 56
7. Cider Summit : listen to Alan Shapiro founder of this cider fest on episode 75.
8. Ramborn Cider Co. Luxembourg.
9. Big Fish Cider Co. Virginia

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