Green farmland, wet wooded beaver territories and, above all, lots of blossoming fruit trees. The landscape in the Belgian province of Limburg is enchanting in April. At half an hour’s drive from Sint-Truiden, however, on the 21-hectare plot owned by tree grower Johan Nicolaï there are no flowering blossoms to be seen, just young apple trees supported by white fiberglass canes. There are 600,000 of them, says Laura Nicolaï, who runs Tree Nursery Johan Nicolaï together with her brothers Vincent and Michiel. Her father Johan is still closely involved.
Every season, the Nicolaï family grows some 1 million young apple trees destined for growers all over the world. On another plot, they have around 400,000 more. Finding fresh soil every year is a challenge. When growing young apple trees, you can't reuse land that has already held apple trees, Laura explains. Whenever a new plot is found, they perform a thorough soil analysis. Are there no pests in the soil? What is the PH value?
She goes on to explain the working process: Nicolaï produces its own graftwood, while its rootstocks come from the Netherlands. On 23 March, the grower starts grafting, followed by planting. This is done mechanically, behind a tractor and using GPS, with six people on the planting machine. “Sixty thousand plants go into the soil every day,” Laura explains. “We try to finish planting by the end of May, but that depends on the weather. Last year, we started planting as late as May because of the rain.”
