Orchard Management
Adjustments to pruning practices could play a big role in improving next year’s crop.
A
pple markets really only pay reasonable prices for 80 to 100 size fruit, year in and year out. Very large and small sizes do not pay consistently. In addition to size, of course, colour and fruit maturity are also critical.
I can hear most growers saying, “Tell me something I don’t already know.” If this is the case, how come so much tonnage does not meet these criteria? The percentage of culls and dollars received per bin should give everybody the message, but many growers do not seem to get it. Apples require a whole range of good practices to produce a sufficient tonnage of high-quality fruit. Believe it or not, the size and quality of next year’s crop and this past season’s crop started with last year’s and the previous year’s pruning. Last winter’s pruning affected the light quality that influenced the buds developing for next year’s crop and the quality of this past year’s crop. Crop load and nutrition of this past year have a big impact on the quality of buds, and hence the fruit size of next year’s fruit.
All is not lost though, as you have to start somewhere. Post-harvest nutrition this fall, coupled with this winter’s pruning, will start the process of improving size and quality from this point forward.
What to do in the fall starts with how the 2012 crop measured up for size, quality and tonnage. Your pack-outs will start to give you an idea, but you should know as you pick how sizes looked and how the bins looked for colour.
The crop removes substantial amounts of major and minor nutrients, and some fall practices can replace some of these and impact bud health for next season’s crop. In particular, post-harvest foliar urea and Boron move into the tissues of the buds and surrounding tissue if applied in the post harvest period. Leaf and
18
By Peter Waterman Apple size and quality:What now?
fruitlet analysis, fruit colour and how easily colour development matched fruit maturity indices of the past crop can assist in your fall program.
As for your
winter/spring fertilizer requirements, did you wait for colour and get
past the optimum pick dates? If so, you did not give the house and the market fruit picked at optimum maturity). If you waited or did not have good colour at the appropriate harvest date for your area, why not? Late-season foliar urea is not a concern with respect to affecting winter hardiness; it is simply not enough Nitrogen on a per-acre basis to make a difference regarding tree hardiness, but it does benefit the buds to encourage strong blooms and healthy spur leaves for next year. On a very practical note, it is hard to get your foliar urea etc.on in time between harvest and irrigation shutdown. You can request an extension for at least one connection, but it will cost you a fee to do so. Despite this, it is still difficult, but it is worth the effort.
Depending on weather and available labour you might have to start winter pruning as soon as the leaves are off. I would like to cover some critical basic principles that are key to large, high-quality fruit.
In most cases we are talking about slender spindle and super spindle trees, but the principles also apply to more traditional older style trees. No
branches are to be left on the central leader if they are 50 percent or greater in diameter than the central leader. They become too dominant and take over the top, become too vigorous and shade lower parts of the tree. Further down the leader excess branches and any branches that are 50 percent of greater in diameter than the leader at the point where they come from the leader must be removed. It is very easy to say “I want the fruit for one more year from a particular branch,” but if it is close to the 50 percent rule the situation will get worse.
Shade and poor quality will be the result.
I tend to be pretty merciless when it comes to branches that are a problem, or will be a problem soon, and remove them.
Branches that are hanging down and weak need to be cut back to an up- growing shoot to stiffen them so they can hold their own fruit.
In addition, spur systems must be renewed. They get old and as they age they lose vigour and can no longer produce good-sized fruit with strong spur leaves.
This involves cutting into spur systems or cutting them back. New shoots with potential for new spurs are the result next year. A lot of growers will leave spur systems untouched because pruning them can be time consuming, but doing a number of them each year will gradually renew and revitalize them.
— Retired orchardist and horticulturist Peter Waterman can be reached at
peter@omedia.ca
AGRICULTURAL NETS & FABRICS
www.farmsolutions.net neal_carter@telus.net
250.494.1099 British Columbia FRUIT GROWER • Fall 2012
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28