Can shorter peach and nectarine trees reduce labor costs without sacrificing fruit quality and yield?
The answer may be developing soon at a 4-acre test orchard south of Fresno, where University of California researchers are planting semi-dwarfing rootstocks as part of a large, integrated experiment on virtually every aspect of peach and nectarine production.
鈥淲e鈥檙e designing 鈥榣adderless鈥 orchards, which have the potential to cut labor costs by 50 percent or more and improve worker safety,鈥 said 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Cooperative Extension specialist Ted DeJong, a plant physiology professor at 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis. DeJong and Kevin Day, a Cooperative Extension farm advisor in Tulare County, are leading the unprecedented experiment.
Conventional peach and nectarine trees grow about 13 feet tall. Setting up, climbing and moving ladders to prune the trees and harvest fruit consumes about half the workday. Ladders are dangerous, too, which is why peach and nectarine growers pay about 40 percent more for workers鈥 compensation insurance than growers who work with more low-lying commodities, like grapes.
Developed by breeders at 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis, the new rootstocks will produce trees that grow about 7 or 8 feet tall and can be pruned and harvested from the ground. With the right orchard management 鈥 which Day and DeJong will test at their plots at the 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center, near Fresno 鈥 the shorter trees could produce just as much high-quality fruit as their lofty kin.
鈥淟adderless orchards would be huge for our industry,鈥 said Bill Chandler, who grows several varieties of peaches and nectarines on his 250-acre Chandler Farms in Selma, California. 鈥淭here are so many costs associated with ladders that many growers are switching over to almonds just to stay in business. It costs me $1,400 an acre to thin our trees.鈥
Rod Milton, a fourth-generation stone-fruit grower, said he would welcome a ladderless system for the peaches and nectarines he grows in Reedley, California.
鈥淓ven with conventional rootstocks, I prune my trees so workers can take two fewer steps on the ladder come harvest time,鈥 he said. 鈥淎nd the savings are huge, even with that. It鈥檚 important to keep farm work safe. And it鈥檚 important to keep farming viable, or else we鈥檒l be getting all our produce from overseas.鈥
Shorter trees are just one of the elements of DeJong鈥檚 and Day鈥檚 experiment, which explores best practices for keeping peach and nectarine production economically and environmentally sustainable. Funded by the 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, their model orchard will integrate virtually every 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 pomology advancement in the past 30 years.
The team will plant conventional, tall trees in one plot and cultivate them using standard irrigation, fertilization and pruning practices. On three other plots, they will grow shorter trees with new, 鈥渂est-management鈥 practices such as minimal pruning, using pressure chambers to measure a tree鈥檚 water needs, and applying compost and nitrogen sprays to minimize nutrient leaching and groundwater contamination. They will compare fruit size and yields, canopy light interception, water and nitrate leaching, and more. Graduate students will have opportunities to get hands-on experience as the next generation of stone-fruit experts.
鈥淲e鈥檙e excited to take our experiments to the next level, to provide growers what they need to make good management decisions,鈥 Day said.
Growers are excited, too.
鈥淚f it wasn鈥檛 for people like Ted DeJong and Kevin Day, I鈥檓 not sure there鈥檇 be any of us peach and nectarine growers left,鈥 Chandler said. 鈥淭hey work so hard to make farming efficient.鈥
The team will begin planting in spring 2015 and should have preliminary data by 2016.
新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis is growing California
At 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis, we and our partners are nourishing our state with food, economic activity and better health, playing a for more than 50 years. 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis is participating in launched by 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 President Janet Napolitano, harnessing the collective power of 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 to help feed the world and steer it on the path to sustainability.
Media Resources
Pat Bailey, Research news (emphasis: agricultural and nutritional sciences, and veterinary medicine), 530-219-9640, pjbailey@ucdavis.edu
Diane Nelson, 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, 530-752-1969, denelson@ucdavis.edu
Ted DeJong, 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis Department of Plant Sciences, (530) 752-1843, tmdejong@ucdavis.edu
Kevin Day, 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Cooperative Extension, Tulare County, (559) 684-3311, krday@ucanr.edu