At Auvil Fruit Company, trees are planted as bench grafts with the union 6 to 8 inches above the ground to avoid scion rooting. Soil is mounded around weak trees to encourage scion rooting. When Del Feigal replants an orchard block, he leaves nothing to chance. His strategy is to drive tree performance, rather than accept fate. Feigal, manager at Auvil Fruit Company in Vantage, Washington, aims to produce 80 bins of apples per acre from the fourth leaf on, and he knows precisely how to get there. It starts with land preparation. In a block he replanted last spring, […]