SUGARCREEK, Ohio – It’s October. The parking lot at Hillcrest Orchard is teeming. People are loading apples, lots of apples, cider, fall decor and more, into cars. The orchard has been in the Hershberger family since 1961. Merle Hershberger and his wife, Lela, are the current owners.

“We have 80 acres of orchard,” Merle Hershberger said. “Mostly apples. We have about 72 acres of apples and about 8 acres of peach. We have a few plums. We make apple cider, apple butter, sell fresh apples, and we can’t raise enough. We have to buy in quite a few apples. We try to have a quality apple here and good cider; our cider is not pasteurized which is popular. People drive miles for our cider.”

At the market they sell fall decor, pumpkins, squash, corn shocks, and a lot of mums, Hershberger said. Nuts, candies, and local produce are for sale inside the store. The family doesn’t grow their own produce but they buy it at a local produce auction.

“If the locals can’t have enough for us we buy it in from the West,” Hershberger said. “In the winter months, we sell California and Florida citrus. We are open from mid-July through April 1st. We close in the spring because when it hits April it’s time to get rid of the apples. They’re not quality apples anymore.”

The family grows 15-18 apple varieties, Hershberger explained. Sales of some of the old types, Winesap, Macintosh, and Jonathons, are fizzling. EverCrisp, Rosalie, and a new apple called Juicy Crisp are very popular.

“We can’t grow all of them so we grow the apples that we personally like the best,” Hershberger said. “Overall, people are very happy with the apples they get here.”

Merle’s grandfather started the orchard with trees planted 20 feet apart. His dad tightened it up with semi-dwarf trees planted 13- to 15-feet apart.

“I am 55 years old and I tied the trees up and went to dwarf trees,” Hershberger said. “We put them about 6 feet apart and my boys are taking over; my oldest son is 32 years old. They’re planting the trees at 2.5 to 3 feet apart.”

Apple prices haven’t increased along with labor, fuel and chemical prices, Hershberger said. Growers have to figure out ways to use less labor and get more apples per acre. They are doing that with high-density planting.

“We’re planting trees at 3 feet apart,” he said. “Usually, the rows are between 12 and 14 feet but we’re on hills. We have to stay at 16 feet. But we’re getting right now as many as 1,000 bushels off an acre. Dad had it real good when they had 300 to 400 bushels to an acre. We just picked a block now that was 1,000 bushels an acre.”

High-density planting is a lot less labor. Hershberger’s can prune the trees in less time than the older, bigger trees took. The pruners can move a lot faster. Yet with the high-density planting, they are still learning.

“We have to keep them trimmed and do it right,” Hershberger said. “We start pruning our trees January 1st and by May 1st we’re still pruning. It takes a bit of labor to get to over 80 acres of apples and peaches. In the summertime we’re still pruning some and thinning them back a little bit to try to get the right amount of apples on a tree so you get more size.”

There’s also a lot of spraying and mowing to be done. Right now, many customers are obsessed with organic apples, Hershberger said. They have one block where they are growing organic, but in the Eastern states, it is difficult because of the dampness.

They still use chemicals on the main orchard, but a minimum amount. They use organic products when they can, and keep the soil tested well as that is important for healthy trees. Keeping the trees supported is also important.

“We have a wire on the top,” Hershberger said. “It is 10-feet high. Our goal is to have a tree grow up to that wire by the third year. We can’t always reach it but that’s our goal. Sometimes they go over the top by about 2 feet and hang down over the side of the wire; I say let’s get them up there. Up there is free space.”

They are OK with having the trees 12 to 14 feet high. They are still handy for the pickers. The wire is there because the trees are dwarf. The rootstock isn’t as big. and the trees are narrow so the wire holds them in place. The central leader is attached to the wire.

“Every tree is tied to a wire; we’re looking at 80 acres,” Hershberger said. “We’re transforming everything from semi dwarf to dwarf but we’re looking at 800 to 900 trees an acre so it takes a lot. Hopefully, in another 10 years we’ll have everything on that system. Then we’ll have 80 acres times 800 or 900 trees.”

It takes the whole family plus help to tend to all those trees. The Hershbergers have seven children and four of the men work in the orchard.

“Jon, the oldest, is store manager, so then Mark works in the orchard, Matt just helps out wherever we need him,” Hershberger said. “Josh is only 15; he’s younger so he is learning but he is doing well. We have one full-time worker plus my dad, Jake, and my brother, Duane, working here. Dad is 82 but he is doing more than his share of the work. In the fall I hire another 40 people to help with the picking and the sales.”