Mechanically hedging a cherry orchard with WSU

In 2016, Washington State University researchers are in the third and final year of mechanical hedging trials. Here, Matt Whiting shows a hedger on Tieton cherries on Gisela 5 trained to UFO at the WSU Prosser extension campus on February 24, 2016. Among the results after two years: Mechanical hedging was 29 times faster than hand pruning and 17 times faster than a combination of the two. (by TJ Mullinax & Ross Courtney/Good Fruit Grower magazine)