Help 3 ac orchard which one? l3400 b3030

[Robert_in_NY]

As I have said you can purchase spray equipment for any size tractor you wish to drive. The advisor I have uses a small 20 hp tractor to spray his 450 tree orchard. He has been doing this since the mid 1960's I think he knows what he is doing since he supported his family with the operation and put two children through college. The 12 x 16 spacing is widely accepted these days with the better root stock and semi-dwarf trees. Purchase the tractor you wish and then purchase the equipment to go with it. I did see that he is on hills just as I am. I have run machinery all my life and am not leading him down an ill advised road.

I still feel strongly that he should consider the equipment he is going to be using when choosing a tractor. This goes for everyone. You don't just walk in blind to a tractor dealer and say I want a tractor, you do your homework and buy the proper tractor for the job you have which is why the OP is asking. Is there anything wrong with looking at what sprayers he may be using on his orchard before he buys a tractor?

 

[lawn_king]

If the spacing is 12 ft in the row and 16 ft the other way, then when the trees are grown there will be a 4' aisle to drive in. Sounds pretty tight unless absolutely necessary.

I grew apples over 14 years with 100 full-size restored McIntosh trees which I considered about 3 acres at normal spacing. We picked around 2500 bushels in the biggest years. Tractor choice is more tied to the spraying equipment than the mowers. You'll spray 12-15 times per season but only mow a few times. Go to some grower meetings in your area or you local extension service to get some ideas about row spacing, sprayers and their hp needs. If you have lots of water and time, then full dilute may be the way to go, if not then aim at some concentration and pick a sprayer that does that well. The spray program means everything to the quality of the crop. Mowing is about 7th on the list behind spraying, pruning, fertilizing, harvesting, storage and marketing.

Excellent post! When i was attending norfolk county agricultural school, 1977-1980, we had some trees in the orchard with 5 different types of apples on them (grafting) Very cool!

 

[rox]

FWIW we have a 30hp goldini for our olive farm. You have to be very careful driving wiht the sprayer on the 3PH as the water moves around when you are going up and down hills and throws off the cener of gravity. A big huge spayer is not the best option on hills and if you have slightly sloping ground. Better to make an extra trip to re-fill and be safe using a smaller sprayer. I'll have to ask my husband how many liters our sprayer holds.

Perhaps you never noticed but on your profile at TBN you must have not filled in your location. It is alwys nice to see where people are from so you might want to update that, once you do it will show in the Forms automatically.

Good luck with your orchard! Our olie trees are planted 4 meters x 8 meters. 4 meteres betweent he trees and 8 meter rows.

 

[rbargeron]

........When i was attending norfolk county agricultural school, 1977-1980.......

Hi Scott - did Norfolk's program interface with the UMASS horticultural station in Belchertown? Great resource. Most people have little idea of what's needed to produce a quality crop. The real growers around here use 50-75 hp tractors with pto-driven sprayers that carry 300-400 gal. The same tractor will handle field bin trailers and wide mowers. Unfortunately, margins are tighter than ever today so economic advantages in other places are pushing northeast US fruit growers out of the picture. Maybe the only people still in it will be the local small-scale hobby farmers.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

FWIW we have a 30hp goldini for our olive farm. You have to be very careful driving wiht the sprayer on the 3PH as the water moves around when you are going up and down hills and throws off the cener of gravity. A big huge spayer is not the best option on hills and if you have slightly sloping ground. Better to make an extra trip to re-fill and be safe using a smaller sprayer. I'll have to ask my husband how many liters our sprayer holds.

Perhaps you never noticed but on your profile at TBN you must have not filled in your location. It is alwys nice to see where people are from so you might want to update that, once you do it will show in the Forms automatically.

Good luck with your orchard! Our olie trees are planted 4 meters x 8 meters. 4 meteres betweent he trees and 8 meter rows.

What type sprayer are you using? I had a 100 gallon Berthoud sprayer I used on the 3pt of my 1920 which is around 30hp. I would not want to use that on any hills though as that was a lot of weight for a 30 horse compact. When full I could lift the front wheels off the ground easily if I didn't feather the clutch properly. I know run a 400 gallon sprayer behind the same tractor and it is way too much for the 1920 but it is all I have available at the time till I can buy a new vineyard tractor. All my ground is flat though which is why I can get away with it.

There is a nice 150 gallon pull behind sprayer with turning wheels on the sprayer for tighter turning. It doesn't take too much horse power and on flat ground can be pulled by just about any tractor but 150 gallons of water sloshing around can push a light tractor around if you are not careful. I think it is a Jacco sprayer or something like that out of Brazil and it has a lot of nice features for a rather inexpensive sprayer. If I recall it was around $9k or $10k.

 

[lawn_king]

Hi Scott - did Norfolk's program interface with the UMASS horticultural station in Belchertown? Great resource. Most people have little idea of what's needed to produce a quality crop. The real growers around here use 50-75 hp tractors with pto-driven sprayers that carry 300-400 gal. The same tractor will handle field bin trailers and wide mowers. Unfortunately, margins are tighter than ever today so economic advantages in other places are pushing northeast US fruit growers out of the picture. Maybe the only people still in it will be the local small-scale hobby farmers.

In those days the aggie had a very strong affiliation with Umass and im willing to bet they still do to this day. I think the pulling of alar by the epa really hurt the apple industry just as the pulling of dursban hurt the lawn care industry.

 

[rox]

I aksed my husband and he said our sprayer is 200 liters and that is really the max you want on a 3ph on hills and slopes. It is so much more convenient to ahve the sprayer on the 3ph rather than one you pull. For the size orchard he is planning he can easily spray just with the wand, don't even need any fancy spaying heads etc. My hsuband jsut drive the tractor real slow and sprays as he drives by holding the wand and we do 12 acers.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

I aksed my husband and he said our sprayer is 200 liters and that is really the max you want on a 3ph on hills and slopes. It is so much more convenient to ahve the sprayer on the 3ph rather than one you pull. For the size orchard he is planning he can easily spray just with the wand, don't even need any fancy spaying heads etc. My hsuband jsut drive the tractor real slow and sprays as he drives by holding the wand and we do 12 acers.

I use to spray with the wand but it was a headache and with certain chemicals I didn't like being that close to the spray tip. With the air blast I am able to go with a cab tractor (my next tractor purchase is a FWA vineyard tractor with cab and front and rear 3pt and pto) protecting me better from the sprays then my full face respirator and rain suit. The respirator does a great job as I don't breath the stuff in but it gives me a major headache if I wear it for more then a half hour and in the summer I can't spray the entire orchard at one time because of heat exhaustion. It doesn't let liquid or air in or out of those suits.

You are right though, for a small farm a small sprayer is fine if you have easy water access. My one vineyard is a 20 minute drive on the tractor and would take me 6.5 loads with a 100 gallon 3pt sprayer so it made more sense to go with a trailed sprayer with higher capacity. Now I make two trips there. My orchard was right behind my house so water access is easy but the larger trailed sprayer made it so much easier to spray. Fill up one time and in an hour I am done spraying and cleaning up.

I do prefer the air blast sprayers over the wands though for a few reasons. Further from the spray, no hose running tight to you that could possibly burst and spray you and your operators station, easier on your body as the wand gets heavy after a while and your neck gets sore looking up to the top of the trees, also you get better coverage with a air blast sprayer while using less water.

The one thing I like about the wand is you can get to some trees a lot easier. The Jatco sprayer has two outlets on it you can plug wands into making it the best of both worlds as you have the air blast sprayer and can have a wand. They make 3pt units as well as trailed.