Fruit tree nursery Fleuren innovates: from cutting tree to carbon sequestration

Fruit tree nursery Fleuren from Baarlo has been around for almost a hundred years. Henri Fleuren started the company in 1922 and under son Karel it became a major international player. It is now the turn of the third generation, with Han Fleuren at the helm of the company. The common thread throughout the years has been innovation, at various levels.

Knipboom

New Harvest sat down with Yannick Smedts, an employee at Fleuren, to find out more about the company's power of innovation. "We always keep looking for answers to issues we run into," Smedts explains. "We remain an innovative company over the years and are constantly trying to improve the production process: better machines, new varieties, software to optimize business processes."

Seeking improvement is not a recent development within the fruit tree nursery. In the 1970s, for example, Karel Fleuren introduced the so-called 'clipping tree', an innovative pruning method that took the fruit world by storm internationally. Since then the company has grown considerably. Currently, 1.6 million pear, apple, plum and especially cherry trees are planted every year on some 130 hectares. These are destined for professional fruit growers throughout Europe. The company also grows apple trees in Serbia to directly serve the Eastern European market.

Precision agriculture

Fleuren's innovation focus is currently on precision agriculture. Smedts introduced this approach to Han Fleuren, after he himself came across it at a potato grower's home. It has since led to four new companies: Fleuren Tech, a yield predictor; Soilmasters, a collaboration to scan and sample soils, WolkyTolky, a weather measuring station especially for agricultural entrepreneurs and AgroWizard, an online platform where growers gain more insight into plots through data. The latter company is a joint venture that recently launched its first product: the TreeWizard, a stem thickness meter that fully automatically measures the stem thickness of avenue and fruit trees in a plot.

Soil Fatigue

A specific phenomenon that tree growers are looking for solutions for is soil fatigue. That is, the growth and yield of fruit trees fall sharply behind when new plantings are made on the same soil. "It means that every year we have to look across the border to Germany for 65 hectares of leased land to be able to plant out all the planting material as well," says Smedts.

In order to turn that tide, a protein mixture is now spread on 4 hectares of land and sealed airtight. In this way, bacteria clear away the unwanted fungi, before the soil life can take its course again.

Carbon sequestration

To further improve soil health, the nursery wants to sequester more carbon. "Because that's the fuel for soil life," Smedts knows. "Ultimately, precision agriculture is going to help us not only to work more efficiently and more cheaply, but also to gain insight into how much carbon we are sequestering in the soil and plant material, and thus what contribution we can make to the climate."

Like many horticulturists, Fleuren also runs up against restrictive fertilizer legislation, which means that even soils with sufficient organic matter do not receive enough fertilizer. "We are actually asking our fruit trees to perform like an Olympian who has to run a top time on two slices of bread. So that's not sustainable."

Lower sugars

In the field of healthy food, Tree Nursery Fleuren is also looking for new solutions. That starts with a healthy soil, but it also receives special attention in cultivation. "This can be done by paying extra attention to fiber-rich fruit and the antioxidants in fruit that are good for the human body. And by growing apples with fewer sugars, but enough flavor."

Fleuren's wife and sister, Corine and Mieke, started selling small apple trees online for the consumer market in 2010. MiniTree is now an international company. "The first idea was to sell so many trees that a nice vacation could be paid for. Now it's going so well that the family can hardly go on vacation."

Source: New Harvest