updated 6/13/2021

Site description and contact

Power - MSU Extension Fruit Research Site

This orchard is located in Power in Teton County at an elevation of 3,776 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 Teton County Extension, (406) 466-2491.

Climate

These data originated from the nearest weather station in Fairfield, 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)
3,983 12.3 82 11 94 -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

drip irrigation from well

none

site was mowed, but in 2019, the grass was high and goes right up to trees

none

yes

yes

no info

Cultivars Planted

Apple: 'Chestnut Crab,' 'Frostbite,' 'Goodland,' 'Honeycrisp,' 'Mutsu,' 'Northern Lights,' 'Spartan,' 'Sweet 16,' 'Zestar!'

Pear: 'Golden Spice', 'Patten,'

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 May of 2013. No rootstock information is available. Site visit notes, 5/22/2019:

  • Orchard has only seven live trees remaining. ‘Goodland’ apple and a ‘Sweet 16’ apple were budding out at the time of site visit.
  • Site has lots of tall grass, signs of fire blight, and deer damage.
  • Trees have not produced any fruit thus far.

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

Photo gallery

Spring 2019Spring 2019

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 Chestnut Crab Frostbite Goodland Honeycrisp Mutsu      
  1/3 1/3 1/3 0/3 0/4      
  Northern Lights Spartan Sweet 16 Zestar!        
  0/3 0/4 0/3 1/3   29 4 14%
Pear Golden Spice Luscious Parker Patten Ure      
  1/3 0/3 1/3 0/3 0/3 15 2 13%
Plum Mount Royal Pipestone Toka          
  0/3 0/3 1/3     9 1 11%

 

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