REED RUN

The Reed Run orchard is a CMS F1 generation orchard sponsored in part by Alcoa, Inc. PA-TACF Chapter treasurer Tim Eck manages this orchard with the help of his wife, Livy, among many other volunteers, some of whom are Alcoa employees..

Introduction: December, 2005. Written by Tim Eck.

The Reed Run Orchard is a CMS breeding orchard featuring a unique cooperation of PA-TACF, The Lancaster County Conservancy, and Alcoa Mill Products – Lancaster. It is situated on a recently acquired Conservancy property in the river hills of southern Lancaster County, accessible from House Rock Road.
From the initial planting in April of 2004, Alcoa has supported the orchard through its volunteers – about 40 employees, friends and family - and its $3000 ACTION grants to PA-TACF.

Although the initial planting site was certified chestnut free by three seasoned experts, before the initial planting of about 90 seeds was complete, we noticed that several Chinese chestnut trees had crept up to within thirty feet of the site. Hoping to preserve some dignity and later convince the neighbor to cut his trees, we continued with the planting. Otherwise the planting was ideal - the day was bright and sunny and we received excellent coverage in the Lancaster Sunday News and even a spot on local TV.

As the year progressed, it became obvious we needed to move the orchard and also institute some deer control measures – all my largest trees were flush with the tops of the tree tubes. Since I also wanted to increase the number of resistance lines, I lined up some more AxC crosses and another work crew from Alcoa and requested another $3000 ACTION grant to buy fencing.

Barry Campbell, the neighbor with the Chinese trees, helped me lay out the orchard perimeter fence on Conservancy land about a half mile away. And a lucky thing we did this early - on the scheduled work day, April 23 2005, the visibility was about 50 feet. Nonetheless, about 25 people found their way to the site. This time we had more than enough work for all – we laid out a 380 tree orchard, planted about 200 trees, and put up 900 feet of fencing. The next day, Barry Campbell, Steve Baumann, and I transplanted the sixty surviving trees from the 2004 orchard.

My wife, Livy, and I have been doing most of the orchard maintenance, but we hope to get some of the Alcoa volunteers to help next year.

Pictures
click on pictures to be taken to larger versions.

ALCOA employees who have volunteered at the Reed Run CMS F1 orchard:

Steve Baumann, Mike Beaudet, Keith Clayton, Tim Eck, John Eye, Pete Frailey, Mario Gallello, Roy Hambric, Butch Johns, Ray Keck, Dave Keen, Marcia Limbert, Mike Liu, John Main, Glen Rottmund, Dale Russel, Leslie Schlegelmilch, Scott Shaub, Donna Welsh, Kevin Wozniak, Rick Zook