Colstrip

updated 06/13/2021

Site description and contact

This site is located in Colstrip in Rosebud County at an elevation of 3,024 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 Melissa Ashley, MSU-Extension, (406) 346-7320.

Climate

These data originated from the nearest weather station in Colstrip, MT and were downloaded from NOAA's website. Note that elevation and environmental conditions may vary somewhat from the orchard site.

See also: detailed climate data for all sites (opens in Figshare)

Management Practices

Cultivars Planted

Apple: 'Cox's Orange Pippin', 'Goodland', 'Goodmac', 'Honeycrisp', 'Northern Lights', '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

Trees were initially planted in April of 2013. No rootstock information is available. Observations from a site visit in spring 2019 indicate that trees have signs of fire blight, deer damage, and are in need of pruning. A couple of trees have fallen over, and most are dead or dying. However, ‘Goodland’ apples were still producing; orchard managers harvested a small basket of big red apples the previous season.

See the printable orchard maps and data for all sites (opens in Figshare).

Photo gallery

Click image to expand and view description.

Click on an image to view as a slideshow.

Tree survival data, fall 2019

See also: survival data for all sites in spreadsheet format (opens in Figshare)