August 18, 2017
CapitalPress.com
11
Aliya Hall/Capital Press
Treco Inc. in Woodburn, Ore., was started in 1941 by Brent Smith’s grandparents.
Nursery specializes in fruit, nut rootstock
By ALIYA HALL
Capital Press
WOODBURN, Ore. —
Brent Smith is the third-gen-
eration of Smiths to operate
Treco Inc.
He has worked there since
third grade, and finds it re-
warding to see how the busi-
ness has changed.
“It’s just being able to keep
it successful. We’ve gone
through our hard times, too,
like everyone else, and have
learned from it, but every year
there’s some new challenge.
We want to stay on the leading
edge of things,” Smith said.
Treco was founded in 1941
by Smith’s grandparents, and
initially they produced both
2-year-old fruit trees and root-
stock. However, in 2000 Tre-
co focused production strictly
on rootstock because it was
competing against its custom-
ers for orchard tree sales.
Treco is known for its ap-
ple rootstock, but has also
started to grow hazelnut root-
stock, as well as some pear
rootstock.
“We have 75 years of ex-
perience growing it, and you
can’t beat this climate. There
are other nurseries, but with
our soil type and the amount
of rain we get, it’s ideal,”
Smith said. “We’re very
hands-on. Quality is a major
thing, customers will buy our
B-grade stock knowing it’s
as good as others’ A-grade.
It keeps commercial growers
coming back.”
Treco’s production is
known as layering. They plant
starter material in the spring
and let it grow for a full win-
ter cycle to defoliate. That fol-
lowing spring they will lay the
material on the ground and let
it send shoots off, which they
cover with sawdust to help
root.
That following winter,
when the plant goes dormant
again, they cut off the mother
plant’s rootstock and sell it.
“Rootstock controls the
tree,” Smith said. “There’s
very dwarfing rootstock that
goes to garden centers for
someone who is going to put
a pot on their patio with a lit-
tle fruit tree, and then there’s
the other side of the pendulum
that is as close to standard
trees as you can get.”
Rootstock also determines
how trees will grow in differ-
ent soil and climate types.
“We have some from Rus-
sia and Poland that are really
winter hardy. Then there’s
rootstock that has some dis-
ease resistance. We get a lot
of that from Cornell Universi-
ty’s Geneva Program,” Smith
said.
There’s a lot more differ-
ence in apple rootstock than
people think, according to
Smith. His Geneva rootstock
comes in crooked with spines
that aren’t easily propagated
until it’s in the orchard; older
rootstocks grow straight with
distance between the nodes
and some that root better than
others.
“They all have their little
quirks. There is a ton of dif-
ference; no two rootstocks are
the same. All have different
characteristics,” said Smith.
Treco was able to recov-
er quicker than most nurser-
ies after the 2008 recession,
even though it had just gone
through a hit from the fruiting
industry in 2000. That dip in
the market was due to produc-
ers’ dependence on one apple
— Red Delicious — that was
overproduced, according to
Smith.
However, the fruit market
began recovering before the
2008 recession hit, which al-
lowed Smith to ride it out.
“We saw a dip, but we
didn’t see the big recession
like the other nurseries did;
we recovered a lot quicker.
We just hunkered down and
waited for it. It helped being
on the food side,” he said.
In the future Treco will be
focusing on the hazelnut mar-
ket and finding that next edge
to stay ahead.
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