Bozeman
MSU Horticultural Farm
'Mount Royal' plum at MSU Bozeman Horticultural Farm
updated 06/13/2021
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Site description and contact
The MSU Horticultural Farm is located in Bozeman in Gallatin County at an elevation of 4,888 ft. To see locations of all MSU Extension Fruit Research Sites and Montana Heritage Orchards, visit this interactive web map.
To coordinate a site visit, contact Mac Burgess, MSU-Plant Sciences and Plant Pathology Department, (406) 994-3510.
Climate
These data originated from the nearest weather station in Bozeman, MT and were downloaded from NOAA's website. Note that elevation and environmental conditions may vary somewhat from the orchard site.
| Weather Station Elevation (ft) |
Average Total Annual Precip (in) |
Annual Average High (F) |
Average Annual Low (F) |
Extreme High Temp (F) |
Extreme Low Temp (F) |
| 4,775 | 16.6 | 83 | 13 | 93 | -10 |
See also: detailed climate data for all sites (opens in Figshare)
Management Practices
|
Irrigation |
Fertility management |
Weed management |
Pruning |
Deer issues? |
Fireblight presence |
Pest notes |
|
underground sprinkler system, 2-inch, watered per night as needed |
soil fertility monitored and fertilized as needed |
6-ft-wide mulch rows that are tilled and prepped each season. Weeds are sprayed and controlled through herbicides applications. |
yes, each year for demonstration |
fenced |
no |
high incidence of vole girdling in the winter of 2020 |
Cultivars Planted
Apple: 'Carroll,' 'Goodland,' 'Goodmac,' 'Honeycrisp,' 'Sweet 16,' 'Zestar!'
Pear: 'Golden Spice,' 'Luscious,' 'Parker,' 'Patten,' 'Ure'
Plum: 'Mount Royal,' 'Pipestone,' 'Toka'
See also: full list and descriptions of the fruit tree cultivars used in this research
Orchard notes and map
This site has many unique cultivars that weren’t part of the original study. Trees were initially planted in May 2013. No rootstock information is available for this site. Best producers include: ‘Goodland’ apple, ‘Carroll’ apple, Mount Royal’ plum, ‘Toka’ plum, ‘Pipestone’ plum, ‘Luscious’ pear, ‘Parker’ pear, and ‘Golden Spice’ pear. Eighteen new apple trees were planted in spring 2020 (six ‘Enterprise’ apple on rootstock G11 rootstock, six ‘Roxbury Russet’ apple on Bud118 rootstock, and six ‘Zestar!’ on rootstock G11). The map below was updated in fall 2020.
See also: printable orchard maps and data for all sites (opens in Figshare).
Photo gallery
Mouse over images to see descriptions, and click to view larger image and expanded description.
Click on an image to view as a slideshow.
Tree survival data, fall 2019
| Cultivar & total surviving trees/total planted trees |
Total planted |
Total alive |
% survival |
||||||
| Apple | ‘Carroll’ | ‘Goodland’ | ‘Goodmac’ | ‘Honeycrisp’ | ‘Sweet 16’ | ‘Zestar!’ | |||
| 3/3 | 3/3 | 0/1 | 2/3 | 3/3 | 3/3 | 16 | 14 | 87.5% | |
| Pear | 'Golden Spice' | 'Luscious' | 'Parker' | 'Patten' | 'Ure' | ||||
| 3/3 | 2/4 | 2/3 | 1/4 | 2/3 | 17 | 10 | 59% | ||
| Plum | 'Mount Royal' | 'Pipestone' | 'Toka' | ||||||
| 3/3 | 2/3 | 3/4 | 10 | 8 | 80% | ||||
See also: survival data for all sites in spreadsheet format (opens in Figshare)
Current Season Harvest/Yield Data
| Cultivar | Harvest Date(s) | Yield/Tree (lbs) | |
| Apple | 'Breakey' | 9/5 | 9.92 |
| 'Collet' | 9/5 | 38.80 | |
| 'Idared' | 9/5 | 81.35 | |
| 'Whitney Crab' | 9/4 | 20.94 | |
| Pear | 'Golden Spice' | 9/7, 9/24, 10/1, 10/5 | 62.70 |
| 'Luscious' | 10/5 | 0.66 | |
| Plum | 'Mount Royal' | 9/22 | 156.64 |
| 'Pipestone' | 9/25 | 0.19 | |
| 'Toka' | 9/2 | 0.44 | |
| Cherry | 'Montmorency' | 7/31, 8/6, 8/15 | 13.84 |
