It's crunch time for the apple industry as innovative apple-growing method hopes to boost productivi

(26 Oct 2014) Tall apple trees with spreading branches might be beautiful, but some Italian growers are hoping apples on the vine will be a bumper crop. Innovative apple orchards at the foothills of the Italian Alps, are now leaning towards short and flat trees, grown in neat rows. These experimental "apple walls" promise a cheaper harvest, and fewer harmful chemicals in the air. These apples don't grow on trees - they grow on vines trained along rows or walls. At the Edmund Mach Foundation in Mezzolombardo they are hoping for a windfall. In Italy's lush Trentino region, a 10-year experiment is finally bearing fruit. Short and flat, these apple walls can be pruned like garden hedges and sprayed easily, from the outside in, without clouds of agrochemicals swirling in the air. Behind the wall is Alberto Dorigoni; an apple visionary, who is bending nature to the needs of sustainable agriculture. An internationally famous pomologist with the Edmund Mach Foundation in Trento, Dorigoni has spent the last decade morphing apple trees into walls of fruit. The new design gives all apples the same amount of sunshine, creating rosy crops. And because the walls are short enough, all the apples can be picked without the use of ladders or mechanical platforms. "Having a flat and short tree is very beneficial for the grower and also for the environment because everything we can do from the ground, it's easier and costs much less than on a tall tree," says Dorigoni. Apple growing techniques had not changed since the 1960s, when the so-called "spindle" replaced the tall, round and monumental biblical apple tree. The cone-shaped spindle which lessened the burden of picking the hard-to-reach apples at the centre of the tree, could grow to up to 13 feet (almost 4 metres) in height. Apple growers had welcomed it as a way to maximise production. But reaching new heights came with a toll. "From the worker that falls from the ladder, to fruits that fall from above and ruin fruits below, and the production cost itself, it is particularly expensive to use ladders and other costly equipment," says Franco Micheli, an agro-technician with the Edmund Mach Foundation. To this day, ladders remain the tool of choice for many growers in the Val di Non Valley. Apple pickers climb to the top of the spindle with no safety net. Throughout the year, the top of the plant is costlier to prune, treat, and eventually to harvest. A few growers are able to invest tens of thousands of dollars on mechanical platforms. But that doesn't solve all the problems. "Some fields are steeper than others, and don't allow us to use such platforms, so you have to use traditional ladders," says Luigi Fedrizzi, an apple grower in Val di Non. "Obviously, using platforms allow us to pick more kilos of apples per hour." Dorigoni's evolution of the apple tree is sleek and minimalist. At 15 inches (38 centimetres) , his wall is twice as thin and four feet shorter than the spindle. The new layout, however, has raised questions on productivity. The region outputs 1.8 million tons of apples a year - that's 75 percent of all Italian apples and 15 percent of Europe's apple production. Here, an acre of land is worth 320,000 US dollars. So growers are wary of shaking things up. Dorigoni insists it's not the crops, but the costs that will decrease. "Of course we don't have many years of experience on this system," says Dorigoni. Dorigoni might struggle with farmers, but he has the ear of the Association of Italian Apple Growers, ASSOMELA. Trentino apples generate 1.5 billion US dollars in yearly revenue. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...