Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
*Trees per acre refers to solid blocks and does not take roads into ac-
count. These are typical densities for the respective training systems.
**Tree spacing refers to distance between trees × distance
between rows.
Key: Estab. = establishment costs; Mgt. = management inputs
L = low, M = moderate, H = high, VH = very high, n/a = data not
available
Uses: hg = home orchards, mg = market orchards, up = U-pick, c =
commercial grower pick
For warm, dry climates, such as in California and Texas, fruit specialists
caution peach and nectarine growers against high-density systems. In these
areas, trees have productive lives of more than 15 years and low- to
moderate-density orchards work well.
Peach and nectarine orchardists have successfully used Tatura and other
divided canopy systems to increase early yields. Trellises and other supports
increase establishment costs and maintenance labor and the hard-to-reach
crop row centers can complicate pest and disease control. I believe the
perpendicular-V and quad-V systems are better alternatives for organic
orchards.
Apricots can be trained to any of the open center designs, or to a modified
central leader system, as for apples. In commercial orchards, they are usually
trained the same way as peaches are trained, but somewhat less pruning is
required.
You can train plums and prunes similarly to peaches — with an open
center or modified central leader — but the trees are more upright. As with
peaches, no proven dwarfing rootstocks are yet available.
