morning – Verwoert’s new cherry sight in Ochten is an amazing sight. All trees are crooked. This is not because of a big storm. It is a new cultivation system from Switzerland. Grower Bart Verwoert believes Betuwe’s quirky orchard can become all-natural.
All trees in Verwoert’s new cherry orchard in Cuneraweg in Ochten at a 45-degree angle. This way they can continue to grow longer in the first few years. The shape ensures that sunlight and therefore the cherry reach the bottom of the tree. This is useful when harvesting.
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“If we’re going to put it upright,” it sounds as Verwoert points out to one of the larger trees, “we have to cut it down now. This gives you a kind of inverted triangle on top of the tree and the sunlight removed from the bottom. It’s easy to fix the problem by deforming it.”
Swiss farming system
The tree should be fixed with horizontal wire, as it naturally rises straight up. This farming system has been used in Switzerland for years. Some time ago Verwoert visited a farmer there.
“If I see the peace and balance in the level of growth in those trees, I find it strange that it is not so with us,” concludes Verweert.
So when it was time for a new planting, he decided to implement the so-called Liners system himself. The farmer believes that colleagues at Betuwe will follow. “There is a lot of interest from other farmers,” he says. “They are now also thinking that it might not be so crazy to say it that way, if the orchard has to be replaced after all. One has to be first.”
