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Don’t delay getting replant plan in place


You’ll need to get sign-off froma horticultural adviser and secure a supply of trees.


By Judie Steeves G


rowers will need to plan ahead to take advantage of the new long-term replant assistance program announced last fall by the province. The $8.4 million program begins this spring and continues to 2021, with $1,030,000 available for 2015. It’s expected that would allow 196 acres to be replanted. Assistant Deputy Minister Grant Parnell with the agriculture ministry said that funding must be used this fiscal year, but he feels the demand is there and he’s confident it will be used.


He notes that the program was developed jointly with the fruit growers association and the ministry’s experts, so he anticipates this year’s allotment will be spent. At the Feb. 21 B.C. Fruit Growers’ Association annual meeting in Penticton, agriculture minister Norm Letnick announced that the grower association has won the bid to administer the program.


For 2016, the plan is to allot $1.28 million, with $1.53 million in both 2017 and 2018.


New applications would have to be made for each year, for a total of 1,566 acres replanted to new, more-profitable varieties of tree fruits.


There are a few differences this year from previous, shorter-term replant programs. They include an increased maximum for apples of $7,500 per acre from $7,000 to allow planting at a spacing of 10 feet by two feet, as is common for super spindle Ambrosia, for instance. There is also a five-page questionnaire to be filled out this year that goes through the replant steps in detail and asks growers what they have done or will do to make the replanted block more successful.


Parnell says the intention is simply to ensure there’s consistency that will result in well-managed business


10 JUDIE STEEVES


John Byland’s West Kelowna nursery, a major supplier, had almost no extra fruit trees available for planting this spring, but has a few available for 2016 and plans to ramp up production for the following year.


decisions; to optimize the process and obtain the best results from the program.


This time around, the program also requires growers to have their plan signed off by a horticultural adviser. “The province is happy to be a partner in this program. The ultimate aim is for the sector to become self- sufficient,” he commented.


Tree fruit specialist for the ministry, Jim Campbell, notes that in 2002, 20,000 acres in B.C. were planted to


British Columbia FRUIT GROWER • Spring 2015


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