Articles
CONTAINER GROWN PEACH TREES; EVALUATION OF A COMMERCIAL ENDEAVOR
Of all fruit trees the peach has a few advantages as a container-grown plant: It was shown to respond positively to pruning methods in producing small and productive trees.
It was shown to produce fruiting trees from rooted cuttings thus enabling production of high density orchards on their own roots.
The unique bearing habit of the peach enables very early bearing and thus early return on the investment in the orchard.
The peach is among those species which are extremely sensitive to the time of fruit ripening.
Peach trees were raised from hardwood cuttings that were grown in small containers of 15 to 20 1 plastic bags filled with volcanic tuff or mixtures of volcanic tuff and peat moss at ratio of 3:1. The trees were fertigated with a diluted nutrient solution.
The plants were trained to the mechanized meadow orchard system.
As fruit ripening was advanced to March or April with the most precocious cultivars, heading back most of the tree canopy after harvest was performed early enough to allow the tree canopy to regenerate and produce a fertile frame that could bear the crop for the next year.
We have utilized the mobility of the container-grown trees to supply their chilling requirement in autumn and to expose the trees to the warm winter and spring conditions in the Jordan valley at 300 m below sea level.
After preliminary trials, two methods were tried: 1. Artificial chilling in coolers available in the region; 2. Transferring the trees in autumn to the adjacent mountain area only 15 km away but 450 m higher in elevation characterized by a dry climate, and exposing the trees to chilling by overhead sprinkling to lower night and day temperatures.
Comparison of the effect of the treatments on leafing, bloom and yield showed that both result in advanced bloom and leafing and hence advancement in fruit ripening.
The first treatment was found to be more reliable but more expensive and is limited in its capacity.
The second one seems a little less efficient in advancing bud break especially in warm years but is unlimited in its capacity.