Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
A CASE STUDY ON PREPARING AN ORCHARD
SITE
With a few improvements, some orchard owners that I consulted with
turned a poorly drained site into a productive berry orchard. This
family-run farm was located on level to rolling pasture land with a low-
lying strip next to the adjacent county road. I examined the site during
late winter when areas of standing water from rain and melting snow
were clearly visible in some of the low-lying areas of the field.
To correct the problem, the owners devised a series of ditches between
the planting blocks, providing drainage into an inlet from a nearby lake.
They used grading to level the fields and to fill in some low-lying areas
in the main body of the orchard, and they installed drain tiles leading
into the ditches. The strip along the county road could not be improved
enough to grow fruit on without great expense, so it was kept as a buf-
fer strip for a future roadside stand and parking area. The result was
that most of the 15-acre property was converted from rather marginal
pasture and forage fields into manageable orchard land.
Staking the Orchard
Before you stake out planting blocks and other parts of your orchard, take
the time to carefully examine the site and identify problem areas, as we dis-
are poorly or excessively drained, rocky outcrops unsuitable for fruit trees,
and other portions of your site that require special management. Then adjust
your orchard design, if necessary, to take these areas into account.
Once you have corrected drainage problems, lay out your orchard blocks
after a close inspection of the site. For this process, you simply need stakes,
