Brandon Lewis (center) of Columbia Basin Nursery listens to Dr. Matt Whiting (left) and Mark Hanrahan (right) discuss the UFO cherry system. In the original concept of Dr. Matt Whiting’s Upright Fruiting Offshoots system for cherries, the trees were unheaded at planting. Traditionally, growers head cherry trees at planting, but Whiting believed that after the nurseries put their resources into growing the tree, it was a shame to whack it back. By leaving the trees unheaded, the space between the trees in a UFO planting could be almost filled at planting, he reasoned. Upright shoots growing from the horizontal leader would […]