Orchard systems have gone through ­dynamic changes over the past 50 years. High-density plantings and dwarfing ­rootstocks have allowed growers to make changes in production practices more quickly as markets have expanded and become more volatile. Will these changes in woody perennial crops in the past five decades be equaled or surpassed in the next? In central Washington, near the Columbia River, apple orchards on V-trellis and slender spindle systems are planted adjacent to large fields of irrigated corn, potatoes, and alfalfa. Several miles downstream, where the river divides Washington and Oregon, large acreages of tree fruit orchards are now […]