Whitehall

updated 6/13/2021

Site description and contact

Whitehall - MSU Extension Fruit Research Site

This orchard is located in Whitehall in Madison-Jefferson County at an elevation of 4,419 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 Kaleena Miller, MSU-Extension, (406) 287-3282.

Climate

These data originated from the nearest weather station in Whitehall, 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)
4,360	41.9*	88	14	97	-9

* Precipitation data may not be accurate from this weather station.

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 on well; 2-gallon emitters per tree	soil sampling and management per test results	6-ft-wide mulch strips around trees; hand removal, no herbicides, grass mowed	yes, central leader	previously; now fenced	no	aphids; birds love the cherries

Cultivars Planted

Apple: 'Chestnut Crab', 'Frostbite', 'Goodland', 'Honeycrisp', 'Prairie Magic', 'Sweet 16', 'Zestar!'

Pear: 'Golden Spice', 'Parker', 'Patten', 'Ure'

Plum: 'Mount Royal', 'Pipestone', 'Toka'

Orchard notes and map

Trees were initially planted in May of 2014. No rootstock information is available. Site visit notes, 4/26/2019:

Orchard is very well-tended; most of the original trees have survived and are producing. The landowners sell produce at the local farmers market.
Site issues include strong winds, hailstorms, pests exposing bark, and birds eating cherries.
Landowner favorites, based on taste and size, include the apple varieties ‘Zestar!’, ‘Goodland’, and ‘Prairie Magic’.
All pear cultivars have had great growth, but landowners have yet to find a way to ripen them.
Cultivars that didn’t survive were ‘Golden Spice’ pear and ‘Arkansas Black’ apple. These cultivars were replaced with ‘Frostbite’ apple, ‘Evans Bali’ cherry, and a ‘Chestnut Crab’ apple.

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

Photo gallery

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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	Prairie Magic	Sweet 16	Zestar!
	1/3	1/3	2/3	3/3	3/3	3/3	3/3	21	16	76%
Pear	Golden Spice	Parker	Patten	Ure
	0/3	3/3	3/3	3/3				12	9	75%
Plum	Mount Royal	Pipestone	Toka
	3/3	3/3	3/3					9	9	100%