Many Washington State tree fruit growers have been slow to adopt technology in the orchard so far, but unless they start making significant changes, their production costs could double in the next 50 years, according to Karen Lewis, Washington State University Extension educator. In a presentation at the Washington State Horticultural Association convention, Lewis and orchardist Jerry Haak noted that picking methods have changed very little over the last 65 years. Growers switched from using metal picking buckets to the lighter canvas picking bags, from using 14-foot wooden ladders to 10-foot aluminum ladders, and from picking into wooden boxes in […]