2
CapitalPress.com
March 23, 2018
People & Places
A believer in KGB cherries
John Morton says
unique pedestrian
orchard system has
its advantages
Western
Innovator
Capital Press
Searching in Europe
Looking for answers, the
industry helped send Lynn
Long, an Oregon State Uni-
versity Extension agent in The
Dalles, to Europe in 1994.
“Europe was having the
same problems of labor short-
ages and Lynn came back and
reported on dwarfing cher-
ry rootstocks that we didn’t
know existed,” Morton said.
The next year, Morton
headed a tour of 25 Cherry
Growers members to Europe
and saw smaller trees that
were easier to pick and result-
ed in higher picker produc-
tion. They met Tobias Vogel, a
German grower and extension
agent, who developed the Vo-
gel Spindle, a central leader
dwarfing tree.
In 1997, Morton met
Green at an international
cherry symposium in Norway
and learned about the KGB.
“John got it. He understood
the principles I was teaching
because I talked grower lan-
guage and so did John,” said
Green, 62, who spoke with
Capital Press on Feb. 15 while
visiting Morton in The Dalles.
March 23-April 30
Wooden Shoe Tulip Fest. 9 a.m.-
6 p.m. Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm,
33814 S. Meridian Road, Woodburn,
Ore. The colorful annual festival in-
cludes a wide variety of activities.
Cost: $5 per person for 13 and older.
Maximum per car charge $20. Web-
site: https://www.woodenshoe.com/
Friday-Monday
March 23-26
Oregon FFA Convention. De-
schutes Fair & Expo Center, Red-
mond, Ore. Website: http://www.
oregonffa.com/EarnToLive/State-
Convention
Saturday, March 31
Welding and Basic Metal Work
for Small Farms. 1-5 p.m. Dunbar
Farms, Hillcrest Road, Medford,
Ore. This popular class is small
and hands-on. With space limited,
register early. David Mostue, farmer
and equipment guru, will teach the
basics of welding techniques on-site
at his farm. Particular focus will be
on those skills most useful to farm-
ers, including the types of welders,
tools and safety equipment needed.
Participants will have a chance to try
MIG welding, the most useful and
common form of welding on farms.
General metalwork like drilling,
bending and welding prep will also
be covered. Cost: $50 each person.
Capital Press Managers
Joe Beach ..................Editor & Publisher
Elizabeth Yutzie Sell .... Advertising Director
Carl Sampson ................Managing Editor
John Morton
Age: 70
Origins: Born and raised
in Sweet Home, Ore., and
spent summers on his
grandparents’ wheat ranch
near Pendleton, Ore.
Family: Wife, Doriene, a
retired nurse, four grown
children, seven grandchil-
dren.
Courtesy of Debbie Zimmerlee
Kym Green, the Australian developer of the KGB cherry tree, left, and John Morton, with Morton’s KGB
trees near The Dalles, Ore., on Feb. 15.
Morton found Regina
and Kordia cherries did well
on the Vogel Spindle. Bing,
Skeena and Lapin did not, but
do well on the KGB.
Morton and Long became
Oregon promoters of the two
dwarfing systems, enlisting
several visits from Green and
Vogel. Several smaller grow-
ers in The Dalles turned to
those systems and the manag-
er of 3,000 acres of orchards
for investment companies ad-
opted a version of the KGB,
Morton said.
Using the dwarfing sys-
tems in his orchards, Morton
said by 2003 he was able to
pick the same amount of fruit
with 35 pickers that previous-
ly had required 75.
Morton believes more
growers should consider the
KGB and Vogel systems for
labor savings and high fruit
quality. A legitimate question,
he said, is whether Bing is be-
coming the Red Delicious of
the cherry industry. There’s
just too many on the market
after the Fourth of July, he
said.
“I left 240 tons of Bing on
the trees last season because I
couldn’t afford to pick them,”
he said.
KGB viewpoint
The KGB’s 25 leaders
coming off the main trunk a
couple feet above the ground
in goblet fashion transfer the
tree’s vigor from vegetation to
fruit, Green said.
Cherries grow in clusters
on the vertical leaders instead
of horizontal limbs. The lead-
ers have more sap flow, nu-
trients and water than lateral
limbs and thus grow larger,
firmer and better cherries,
Green said. Summer topping
at eight feet de-vigorates the
tops and allows more light
lower on the leaders, making
stronger buds, he said.
It’s about six feet across
open space from leaders on
one side of the goblet to the
other. Double planting rows
and 600 trees per acre keeps
volume up, he said.
“Some modern systems
have 30,000 lineal yards
of fruiting wood per hector
whereas the KGB has 50,000
to 60,000, so double. It’s a lot
more fruiting wood and less
structural wood,” Green said.
A hectare equals 2.47 acres.
Growers in Chile also use
it, he said.
The UFO (Upright Fruit-
ing Offshoot) developed by
Matthew Whiting, a Wash-
ington State University plant
physiologist, is based on the
KGB but is 10 leaders on a
single stem in the same plane
to form a fruiting wall for me-
chanical harvesting, Green
said.
The UFO has too much
vegetative vigor, about 10
percent per limb versus 4 per-
cent for the KGB and 20 per-
cent for a normal tree, he said.
“UFOs are monsters. To
get volume you have to go
higher and then you’re fight-
ing the tree the whole time.
It’s not a pedestrian orchard,”
Green said. “Mechanical har-
vesting is way overrated. It’s
like pissing in the wind. It
won’t happen in our lifetime.”
A UFO defense
Whiting disagrees. He said
the UFO was not developed
from the KGB, is not too vig-
orous, does not yield “mon-
ster” trees and that mechan-
ical harvesting is a proven
possibility.
“Industry adoption is in-
evitable,” Whiting said of
mechanical harvesting, add-
ing the UFO is designed for
production efficiency, not just
mechanized harvest.
“We have data to show bet-
ter hand harvest efficiency in
UFO compared to KGB,” he
said. “I am against any pedes-
trian system for sweet cherries
because it will unnecessarily
limit yield and profit.”
He said his observations
do not support Green’s per
limb vigor percentages.
“The biggest challenge is
achieving relatively uniform
vigor among uprights and
knowing the right balance of
uprights per tree to be nei-
ther excessively vigorous
nor weak in annual growth,”
Whiting said.
“The KGB is certainly
not better in general. I do not
think growers should be turn-
ing to any system that does
not form a compact fruiting
wall,” he said.
Roughly 50 percent of
Washington’s cherries come
from low-density orchards of
large old trees. New plantings
are not mainly UFO, but many
are V-trellised, Whiting said.
There is a great diversity in
systems with a clear trend to-
ward higher-density, size-con-
trolling rootstocks and planar
systems, he said.
Mark Hanrahan, husband
of Ines Hanrahan, postharvest
physiologist for the Washing-
ton Tree Fruit Research Com-
mission, is a proponent of the
UFO system, which he began
using 15 years ago in his or-
chard near Zillah, Wash. He
uses it on 40 acres of Raini-
er, Santina, Tieton, Cowiche,
Early Robin and Chelan cher-
ries.
The UFO fruits on vertical
leaders but people let it fruit
on laterals as well, he said.
“I’ve seen a lot of train
wrecks because of apical
(central leader) dominance is
so strong. You want the strong
leader at the end,” he said.
The SSA (Super Spindle
Education: Bachelor’s de-
gree in agricultural engineer-
ing, Oregon State University,
1971.
Work History: Western
Farm Service (fertilizer),
Athena, Ore., 1971 to 1982;
managed center-pivot farms
for insurance companies in
Eastern Oregon and Eastern
Washington, 1982 to 1988;
spray manager Mt. Adams
Orchards, White Salmon,
Wash., 1988 to 1992; The
Dalles fieldman for Oregon
Cherry Growers, 1992 to
2009; cherry grower since
2000.
Axis) tree style also is good,
and any planar system is bet-
ter than the KGB because they
can be mechanically harvest-
ed while the KGB can’t, he
said. He also believes cherries
will be mechanically harvest-
ed.
Other innovations
While there’s still debate
over the KGB, UFO and oth-
er systems, Morton’s interest
in innovation hasn’t stopped
there.
He’s experimented with
rain netting used in Europe
but determined it’s too ex-
pensive. It works in Europe
because governments pay half
the costs, he said.
Morton has been testing
new varieties owned by pri-
vate nurseries but bred in uni-
versity programs in East Ger-
many, Czechoslovakia and
Hungary before the collapse
of communism in Eastern Eu-
rope.
“A lot of good cherry
breeding was done there be-
fore the fall of the Berlin Wall
but it was never promoted,”
he said. “So we’ve been sort-
ing through and testing variet-
ies from there for a number of
years.”
It’s a slow process, he said.
Material comes in under quar-
antine to the WSU Clean Plant
Center Northwest in Prosser.
Calendar
To submit an event go to the
Community Events calendar on the
home page of our website at www.
capitalpress.com and click on “Submit
an Event.” Calendar items can also be
mailed to Capital Press, 1400 Broad-
way St. NE, Salem, OR 97301 or
emailed to newsroom@capitalpress.
com. Write “Calendar” in the subject
line.
Established 1928
Board of directors
Mike Forrester
Steve Forrester
Kathryn Brown
Susan Rana
Mike Omeg
Corporate Officer
Heidi Wright
Chief Operating Officer
By DAN WHEAT
THE DALLES, Ore. — A
grower, former fieldman and
promoter of dwarfing cher-
ry trees for more than two
decades says more grow-
ers should adopt an Austra-
lian tree system to cut labor
costs in half and grow large,
top-quality cherries.
John Morton, 70, is bull-
ish on the KGB. No, he’s not
talking about Russians, but a
goblet-style cherry tree devel-
oped in 1993 by Australian
grower Kym Green. It is a
takeoff of the Spanish Bush
cherry tree — hence the Kym
Green Bush, or KGB. It’s
pedestrian, meaning it is har-
vested from the ground with-
out ladders.
“The brine industry was
the bulk of the cherry industry
in Oregon in the early 1990s
and prices were collapsing.
We had a lot of old Bing and
Royal Anns,” says Morton, an
Oregon Cherry Growers field-
man from 1992 to 2009 and a
grower since 2000.
Part of the problem was a
labor shortage. The Dalles has
a harder time attracting and
keeping pickers since there
were few pears and apples to
extend picking after cherries,
he said.
Capital Press
Contact: paula.burkhalter@oregon-
state.edu or 541-776-7371. Website:
http://bit.ly/JacksonSmallFarms
Wednesday-Saturday
April 4-7
Idaho FFA State leadership
Conference. College of Southern
Idaho, Twin Falls, Idaho. Website:
https://www.idahoffa.org/confer-
ences-conventions/
Thursday, April 5
Part 4: Farm & Ranch Succes-
sion Planning Workshop. 6-8:30 p.m.
Clackamas Small Business Devel-
opment Center, 7726 SE Harmony
Road, Milwaukie, Ore. This program is
offered and taught by the Clackamas
Small Business Development Center,
along with guest presenters such as
attorneys and CPAs. A complimentary
light dinner will start each evening at
6 p.m. To register, call 503-594-0738.
Cost: Free. Website: http://bit.ly/
2CX1jvl
Saturday, April 7
28th Dayton FFA Alumni Auction
and Dinner. 5:30-9 p.m. Old Dayton
High School Gym, 801 Ferry St.,
Dayton, Ore. The auction is the larg-
est fundraiser the Dayton FFA Alumni
does each year. If you or your busi-
ness would like to donate an item,
time, money or services to this year’s
auction, or if you are interested in
joining Dayton FFA Alumni, please
contact Mitch Coleman at (503) 864-
2080. The silent auction starts at 5:30
p.m. The first table closes at 6:30 and
dinner featuring local foods will be
served at 7. Cost: $10 at the door or
from the Dayton Ag Shop at 503-864-
2080.
Basic Irrigation System Design
and Operation. 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
Dunbar Farms, Medford, Ore. This
class will look at a variety of irrigation
systems suitable for different crops.
The class will be particularly useful
for those planning to build or alter
their irrigation systems. The day of in-
struction includes a trip around Dun-
bar Farms to look at a wide variety of
pump stations and irrigation methods
in operation. These systems will in-
clude overhead sprinklers for hay,
drip irrigation in wine grapes, high
uniformity rotator sprinklers for row
crops, large volume canons for infre-
quent irrigation purposes and flood
irrigation in hay. Directions to the farm
will be sent to registrants. Registration
options other than on line, contact
Paula, 541-776-7371. Register on-
line: http://bit.ly/JacksonSmallFarms
Cost: $35 per person. Website: http://
bit.ly/JacksonSmallFarms
to paula.burkhalter@oregonstate.edu
or call 541-776-7371. Cost: $20 each
person Website: http://bit.ly/JacksonS-
mallFarms
Tuesday, April 10
Shepherds’ Extravaganza. 2-10
p.m. Washington State Fair, 110
Ninth Ave. SW, Puyallup, Wash.
Sheep and Fleece Show, vendors
of supplies, used fiber-related
equipment, demonstrations, work-
shops. Cost: No cost after admis-
sion to the Spring Fair. Website:
www.shepherds-extravaganza.com
Southern Idaho Livestock Hall of
Fame induction. 6:30-9 p.m. Turf Club,
734 Falls Ave., Twin Falls, Idaho. This
year’s inductees are: cattle rancher
Jim Baker of Filer; sheep and cattle
ranchers Ed and Emily Baker (posthu-
mously) of Filer; cattle ranchers Scott
and Sarah Bedke of Oakley; dairy
producers Harry and Flora Bokma of
Buhl; long-time Bureau of Land Man-
agement supervisor Dean Brown of
Jerome; and cattle ranchers Wade and
Gwenna Prescott of Carey. Cost: $25
Saturday, April 14
Understanding and Maintaining
Farm Equipment. 1-5 p.m. Dunbar
Farms, Medford, Ore. This class of-
fers an introduction to farm equipment
maintenance and repair including: how
small gas engines and larger gas and
diesel engines run, basic maintenance
and tuning; trouble-shooting problems
and how to tell whether you can fix a
problem. Register online at http://bit.ly/
JacksonSmallFarms or send an email
Thursday, April 19
In the Field: Salem Agriculture
Seminar. 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Wil-
lamette Heritage Center, 1313 Mill
St. SE, Salem, Ore. A seminar for a
discussion specifically designed to
provide agribusiness owners and
their managers with tools they need
to get organized. Topics include the
new tax cuts, finances and financial
statements, regulatory updates on
water and wetlands, organizing an
agri-business and estate planning.
Sponsor: Schwabe, Williamson and
Wyatt. RSVP at http://bit.ly/2FwaRPV.
Cost: Free
Thursday-Sunday
April 19-22
Puyallup Spring Fair. Washing-
ton State Fairgrounds, 110 Ninth
Ave. SW, Puyallup, Wash. Website:
http://www.thefair.com/spring-fair
Saturday, April 21
Oregon Women for Ag Auction
and Dinner. 5:30 p.m. Linn County
Fair and Expo Center, 3700 Knox
Butte Road, Albany, Ore. This excit-
ing event is a fundraiser for Oregon
Women for Agriculture, which advo-
cates for all things involving agricul-
ture in the state. Web: owaonline.org
Tree School East. 9 a.m.-4 p.m.
Baker High School, 2500 E St., Bak-
er City, Ore. The school will offer 29
classes on multi-aged forest manage-
ment, insects, disease, weeds, suc-
cession planning, geology of North-
east Oregon, wildflower identification
and small scale harvesting for the
“do it yourself” folks. Sponsored by
OSU Extension, the Oregon Forest
Resources Institute and the Oregon
Small Woodlands Association. Cost:
$50, $20 for 18 and younger. Web-
site:
http://extension.oregonstate.
edu/baker/
Sunday-Wednesday
April 22-25
California FFA State Convention.
Anaheim Convention Center, Ana-
heim, Calif. Website: http://www.cal-
aged.org/stateconvention
Saturday-Sunday
April 28-29
Oregon Ag Fest. 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m.
Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday.
Oregon State Fairgrounds, 2330 17th
St. NE, Salem, Ore. A two-day event,
aimed to help families better under-
stand where their food, fiber and
flora come from, is a unique learning
experience, where hands-on exhib-
its make learning about Oregon’s
vast agricultural industry educational
and entertaining. Kids 12 and under
free. Viirtually all activities are free
of charge. Cost: $9 for ages 13 and
over. Website: http://oragfest.com/
Thursday-Saturday
May 10-12
88th Washington FFA Convention
& Expo. Washington State Universi-
ty, Pullman, Wash. Website: https://
www.washingtonffa.org/conven-
tion-overview/
Jessica Boone ........ Production Manager
Samantha McLaren .... Circulation Manager
Entire contents copyright © 2018
EO Media Group
dba Capital Press
An independent newspaper
published every Friday.
Capital Press (ISSN 0740-3704) is
published weekly by EO Media Group,
1400 Broadway St. NE, Salem OR 97301.
Periodicals postage paid at Portland, OR,
and at additional mailing offices.
POSTMASTER: send address changes to
Capital Press, P.O. Box 2048 Salem, OR
97308-2048.
To Reach Us
Circulation ......................... 800-882-6789
Email ........ Circulation@capitalpress.com
Main line ........................... 503-364-4431
Fax ................................... 503-370-4383
Advertising Fax ................ 503-364-2692
News Staff
Idaho
Carol Ryan Dumas .......... 208-860-3898
Boise
Sean Ellis .......................... 208-914-8264
Cent. Washington
Dan Wheat ........................ 509-699-9099
W. Washington
Don Jenkins ...................... 360-722-6975
E Washington
Matthew Weaver .............. 509-688-9923
Oregon
George Plaven ................. 406-560-1655
Mateusz Perkowski .......... 800-882-6789
Graphic artist
Alan Kenaga ..................... 800-882-6789
To Place Classified Ads
Ad fax .............................. 503-364-2692
or ...................................... 503-370-4383
Telephone (toll free) .......... 800-882-6789
Online ......www.capitalpress.com/classifieds
Subscriptions
Mail rates paid in advance
Easy Pay U.S. $3.75/month (direct with-
drawal from bank or credit card account)
1 year U.S. ...................................$49.99
2 years U.S. .................................$89.99
1 year Canada .................................$275
1 year other countries ......... call for quote
1 year Internet only .......................$49.99
1 year 4-H, FFA students and teachers ....$30
9 months 4-H, FFA students & teachers .....$25
Visa and Mastercard accepted
To get information published
Mailing address:
Capital Press
P.O. Box 2048
Salem, OR 97308-2048
News: Contact the main office or news
staff member closest to you, send the in-
formation to newsroom@capitalpress.com
or mail it to “Newsroom,” c/o Capital Press.
Include a contact telephone number.
Letters to the Editor: Send your
comments on agriculture-related public
issues to opinions@capitalpress.com, or
mail your letter to “Opinion,” c/o Capital
Press. Letters should be limited to
300 words. Deadline: Noon Monday.
Capital Press ag media
www.capitalpress.com
www.FarmSeller.com
marketplace.capitalpress.com
www.facebook.com/capitalpress
www.facebook.com/farmseller
twitter.com/capitalpress
www.youtube.com/capitalpressvideo
Index
Dairy ...................................... 9
Livestock ............................... 9
Markets ................................11
Opinion .................................. 6
Correction policy
Accuracy is important to Capital
Press staff and to our readers.
If you see a misstatement,
omission or factual error in a
headline, story or photo caption,
please call the Capital Press
news department at
503-364-4431, or send email to
newsroom@capitalpress.com.
We want to publish corrections to
set the record straight.