SALEM (AP) — Researchers hope to keep Oregon pear growers ahead of international competition by cutting orchard costs — creating “flat” orchards unlike those Oregonians have known.

The orchards would be denser, with trees three times closer than they are now, and more compact, with trees 8 to 10 feet tall rather than the conventional 16 feet.

Those growth characteristics and a trellising system would allow orchards to be tended without ladders.

Laborers could ride on a self-steering mechanical platform as they go about pruning, thinning and harvesting.

Clark Seavert, an Oregon State University extension agricultural economist, said what’s called the “Competitive Orchard System,” evolved from a project that measured the economic impact of new technology and how the minimum wage rate would affect the tree fruit industry.

For pears, the greatest savings were found in labor efficiency.

“This is the first time in the Oregon pear industry that a project is driven by economics,” he said.

Researchers are growing several varieties of dwarf pear rootstocks, foreign and domestic, at the Hood River Experiment Station to find alternatives to conventional orchards.

“Opportunities to grow a smaller pear tree that begins producing fruit in the third or fourth year have been thwarted by a lack of dwarfing, precocious rootstocks,” said Janet Turner, a horticultural research technician.

An advantage to dwarf rootstocks is production of a marketable crop by the third or fourth year. Usually, it takes five years to get a crop of Anjou pears.

Many Oregon growers are experimenting on their own as part of a joint effort, but results are not available yet.

“Give us another three years, and I think we’ll know if the trees can be productive,” said Seavert. “In the meantime, we will get information and new tree stocks out to growers as soon as possible.”