René Nicolaï

Securing the future with innovative varieties

Fruit-tree nursery ‘René Nicolaï’ from Alken has set itself a clear course: distinguishing itself on the market by intensively looking for other and better varieties. In addition to the constant search for the best soil to grow them in, over the past few years the search for water has also been added.

Writer: Ivan De Clercq, AVBS, on behalf of VLAM

René Nicolaï nv produces around 2 million rootstocks in fruit trees for fruit growers. Part of the rootstock goes to trade. The rootstock comes from about ten hectares of mother beds and are propagated by layering. For apples it concerns rootstock M9 (own selection) and M26 and G11; for pears Kwee Adams and Kwee C.

Professional fruit grower as customer
The greater part of the rootstock is used for the production of around 1 million fruit trees, of which 70% are apple, 20% pear and 10% cherries. It takes two to three years to grow them. “The professional European fruit growers make up our clientele for the fruit trees. 80% goes to England, Benelux, Germany and Northern Italy, supplemented by a bit to Poland and the Czech Republic. The rest goes all over the world,” manager Florent Geerdens explains. He had been working for the company for 15 years already when he took it over from the Nicolaï family in the year 2000. The company name stayed the same but its size rapidly grew. The company now has around 25 permanent employees, which can rise to around 100 in peak season.

Anticipating
35 years of experience growing fruit trees under the belt, and a great deal of change occurred during that time. “I saw the popularity of the Golden Delicious; then low prices meant a massive switch to Jonagold. Then came the move to Conférence pears. What will it be in the future? As fruit-tree growers, we have to anticipate and offer growers the varieties that in the future will offer added value and may or cannot be grown in other countries,” Florent describes his vision.

Protected varieties
The company consciously puts a lot of effort and resources into the search for new varieties. “In North-western Europe we are often confronted with the fact that someone else can produce our trees more cheaply elsewhere. The basic know-how of growing trees can be copied anywhere. In response to this, the sector has sharply evolved to varieties protected by plant breeders’ rights that are even sold to the customer under a brand name. We also believe very strongly in this.”

Branding and storytelling
In cooperation with colleagues, Florent reaches out to breeders all over the world and maintains contacts with research institutes in New Zealand, Washington, New York, Bologna and Wageningen. “We follow the results of trials with new varieties all over Europe and even have our own trial field. Criteria include flowering, shelf-life, flavour, kilograms and size.” Once we find a promising variety, test contracts and then exclusive contracts are signed. Then Florent looks for partners further downstream in the chain. That could be an auction, a producer organisation or a supermarket chain. “Developing a network is a long process and it takes a lot of time. Investing in intellectual property costs money, but you can also create added value with it. Branding and storytelling are important everywhere in society; the fruit-tree nursery is no exception.”

Avoiding replant disease
Committing to new varieties is not just a question of having a better story on the market, it can also offer cultivation benefits. The so-called ‘replant disease’ is a well-known phenomenon in the sector. Apple and pear trees are very susceptible to monoculture. That is why fruit-tree growers never grow the same crop twice on the same land, not even after 10 or 20 years. “For apples we now grow the G11 rootstock which is far less bothered by it and is also less susceptible to fire blight, red mite and Erwinia. As far as I’m concerned, looking for varieties that can offer such improvements is also 100% part of sustainability.”

Capillarity cannot follow
To guarantee perfect growth in the tree nurseries, for fruit-tree growers such as Florent Geerdens it essential to look for new plots of land every year. “The soil is the most important thing. Every year we look for 50 hectares of better loess and loamy soils. As a result, we have plots up to 40 km away from our company.”

The quality of the soil ensures the quality of the plants. “Thanks to excellent capillary rise, good loamy soils traditionally provide a lot of water for the plants and stimulate growth. At least, that was the case in the past. Following the past few, very dry years, that water supply has greatly shrunk and that has really become a problem for us.” Trees with drought stress stop growing prematurely which makes a difference in the thickness and height of the trees, the number and length of lateral branches and the root system. And as a result, the price. The stock nurseries are not as quickly affected by drought since they have deeper roots. However, the layers do have to be placed in humid soil so that they can take root.

Reels or irrigation tubes
These are new concerns in an area where until five years ago water was only discussed in terms of drainage. “His whole life, my father worked on making the plots drier. For the past four to six years I have been working on how to get water to the plots. Don’t try telling me that climate change isn’t real.”

If the young trees cannot reach water with their roots, water must be brought to the young trees. However, the way to do so is not self-evident.  Digging a well to pump up water is not an obvious choice if you change location every 2 to 3 years. So, water must be brought in. “Using a contract worker to supply large reels is one solution. But it requires an enormous amount of water and is unaffordable during longer periods of drought. A second option is to work with T-tapes, irrigation tubes. This is far more efficient in terms of water consumption, but it does require a lot more use of additional labour to unroll and connect everything,” Florent weighs up his options. “Honestly, we haven’t yet decided which of the two options is better. We do one or the other, depending on the specific conditions. The main thing is that the water gets there, because we’re not willing to make concessions with regard to quality.”

Hoeing for water
Every year, the company produces around 100,000 fruit trees for the organic fruit-growing sector. That organic production was one of the reasons for investing substantially in portal tractors to be able to drive over the trees for example to make mechanical weeding possible. “The fight against disease and weeds is not always an easy one in organic fruit-tree growing, but we have already learned a lot. I’m convinced that as a result of the constant phasing-out of resources, increasing numbers of techniques from organic tree farming will be used in the conventional part of the sector. Hoeing to remove weeds, for example, ensures that the water is retained in the soil better.”

What’s more, the increased attention paid to the soil in organic farming can be an inspiration. “Experience shows that the soil structure is far more important than the last units of nitrogen. By sowing a green manure crop and using farmyard manure or spent mushroom compost we try to provide a good foundation for the crop.  You can bring in additional water, but the soil has to be right from the word go” .

René Nicolaï nv in figures

• Employees:  
  • manager
  • 4 permanent employees 
  • 40-80 occasional workers
  • 24 contractual workers 
     
• Company surface area:  
  • 120 ha terrain outside
     
• Export: 70% of the turnover  
  ​​​​​​​Share of export destinations
  • 30% Italy
  • 20% Germany
  • 8% UK
  • 5% The Netherlands
  • 3% France
  • 2% Poland
  • 2% Others 
     
• Most important export products:
  • Malus, Pyrus, Prunus