![]() “What I need now is a trellis,” McCleaf said. He said the production system is easy to maintain and works well for managing vigor and increasing yields - producing 1,000 bushels an acre in 2016 - but to really make the system shine, he’s waiting on Schupp’s results. So, they stick with open centers.īut just down the road from the research center, Corey McCleaf grows his peaches in a six-scaffold system called a hex-V that produces about 800 bushels an acre. At Bear Mountain Orchards, one of the state’s largest peach growers, experiments with high-density perpendicular V-system peaches with two scaffolds produced really tall trees that are difficult to manage unless they opt to invest in platforms, farm manager Joy Cline said. Many local growers say they still prefer open-vase peach orchards, because they see the benefits of the ladderless peach orchards outweighing increased density. Although peach acreage pales in comparison to the state’s apples, it’s an important crop because the region has the ideal climate for tree-ripened peaches that bring high prices at farm markets locally and in nearby cities. Pennsylvania is the fifth largest peach producing state, after California, South Carolina, Georgia and New Jersey. (Kate Prengaman/Good Fruit Grower) Peach country Traditional open vase peach systems create pedestrian orchards, which growers like, but production per acre is low. Will there be problems with it? Of course. So we’re actually going to renew the scaffolds,” he said. “With peach, it’s very hard to renew the fruiting surface down in the lower part of the canopy. “We are going to prune them mechanically, we’re going to thin them mechanically, and it’s going to be a low-labor production system.” “I’ve cooked up this totally insane system so that the only labor we are going to need is harvest labor,” Schupp said. He’s got plans to take things even further, collaborating with the center’s new agricultural engineer Long He on a new block they intend to mechanize as much as possible. “It takes our yield up from about 350 bushels an acre to 650 bushels an acre, which is not insignificant.” ![]() Plus, you get that nice uniformity of fruit color and quality, and the main thing is you get much higher yield,” Schupp said. “They really lend themselves to mechanization, because now you have a two-dimensional canopy with a V-shape, which the peaches are naturally adapted to. Trellis wire poses a risk to peaches, because it could create canker-prone wounds, so Schupp decided to use plastic microfilament to support his prototype peach trellis at the Penn State University Fruit Research and Extension Center in Biglerville, Pennsylvania. Previous trials pointed to a quad-V system as the best balance of productivity and cost, so now he’s testing trellises and, so far, he’s optimistic. Schupp thinks that system is overdue for innovation, so for the past decade he’s been testing out a variety of rootstocks, spacings and systems to increase yield and simplify pruning. ![]() In the Mid-Atlantic region, growers are increasingly adopting high-density plantings for apples, but by and large, they still plant peach orchards the same way their grandfathers did: pedestrian systems with about 130 open-vase trees per acre. “Everyone knows you can’t grow peach trees on trellis,” he said with a smile, in front of a V-trellis block that supports four scaffolds per tree at the university’s Fruit Research and Extension Center in Adams County, Pennsylvania. His latest peach orchard fits this “guerrilla extension” strategy because it challenges many of the region’s traditional peach practices, the Penn State University horticulturist said. Jim Schupp likes to plant his more provocative experiments right along the road so that growers passing by have a chance to watch. ![]() ![]() Researcher Jim Schupp says this trellised system will increase yields from 350 bushels an acre to 650 bushels an acre. A trellised quad-V peach systems trial at the Penn State Fruit Research and Extension Center in Biglerville, Pennsylvania on May 23, 2018. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |