Many prefer the binomial to the common name, which often will vary from location to location. This category consists of woody perennials which yield many different kinds of marketable products, including edible seeds and fruits, building and fuel woods, animal fodders, oils, chemicals, drugs and spices. Most tree, shrub, and vine crops are labor-intensive. Though many breakthroughs have been made in mechanization, no machine can match the intelligence of a person for the tasks of pruning, training, and harvesting. Since large commercial growers cannot switch from one tree, shrub, or vine crop to another without incurring a considerable loss in production, they often form grower's associations and cooperatives to protect themselves against glutted markets and low prices.
Associations can have a profound impact on a competitive marketplace.
Their government-backed marketing orders, for example, can go so far as to restrict the sale of certain farm products to specific size standards. High-density metrofarm techniques could increase per acre yield significantly. One example of this technology would be the intensive training, pruning, watering and feeding of a deciduous fruit crop on a dwarf root stock. Though expensive in terms of labor, the techniques, when combined with other sound metrofarm strategies, could increase the total production and productivity of an acre significantly, thereby providing an edge in the competition for consumer dollars. Following are five questions which will help you make this determination.