Just got four samples in. Four plugs from my 1/4 acre orchard. 40 trees (only half old enough to fruit), 16 peaches, 12 apples and 12 pears. Peaches that survive the spring (not many) have been smaller, not well colored/slightly shriveled ripe and later than normal ripe dates. They are tasty though?? I do keep a heavy surround coat on til august. Not sure if that affects them negatively. No bug or fungal issues seem like the cause.
Still have some spring cold issues with apples, but decent crop and all turned out great and on time.
What few pears survived frosts and blossom blast, got nickel sized and dropped. No bug or fungus issues on them.
Thinking soil health is my issue. Analysis shows uniformly low phosphorus, boron and sulfur. Let me know what ya’ll think and any advice. Thanks!
Your soil analyses looks pretty good. You could adjust the sulfur with gypsum. Maybe ask the lab to send the analyses to you in required pounds per acre to make it easier to use. If you want to increase boron I would do it slowly. Maybe add a quarter of required in the form of borax. Mix it into the gypsum on a tarp before putting in the spreader. There are many ways to add phosphorus. Super rock phosphate is what I use. You don’t need much
Basically you don’t have soil nutrient issues. That’s not likely the cause of any fruiting problems. If the soil drains well it should be good for fruit trees.
Apply the average of their recommendations and you will be set.
Ok. I know the pears are planted where juglone is present (walnut trees were removed). Maybe that’s an avenue to pursue. Two years in a row of the same peach issues. Could a heavy coat of surround during ripening cause problems?
What do the leaves on the trees look like? Are the trees growing shoots well? How old are these trees?
Low phosphorus will often give misshapen fruits and fruit drop. Also the shoots are really skinny. The spring leaves look dark then they get brownish spots on the leaf edges. (ask me how I know! Lol).
Reading through, my first wondering was for how long each tree has been planted in-ground. My second was whether these were all bare-root trees that were planted entirely in the existing non-amended soil or whether a hole was dug and the whole tree (along with the soil that the tree was potted in) was simply dropped into it.
@Olpea, is a thinning of 90% of the blossoms/fruit on a peach tree enough to get the fruit to the size and quality that most of us would want?
The trees and leaves look pretty good. 4 years old. Now showing signs of drought, which is severe in my area, despite watering once or twice. I have had some purple leaves in years past, but have worked to increase P and N directly under the trees with composted chicken manure. Trees do put on quite a bit of growth and look healthy. I do fight shothole/bac spot, but slowly winning the battle. Just picked at an orchard last week, who’ve had their best peach year in a while. There trees looked worse than mine, except they were loaded with fruit!
Fruit bearing trees are a mix of potted and bare root. 3-4 years old. Only a couple 4 year olds had some fruit. All planted in 3-4’ wide holes with a mix of amendments and native soil. Mycorrhizae was added at planting. Fertilized twice every spring, once with chicken fert and once with fish/seaweed. Contender had 8-10 and the Belle had 15, both were potted, but not root bound when planted. They are on opposite ends of each other in the orchard. Both of these had a few fruits last year, but same look and lateness of ripening (2 weeks late).
I think this probably has something to do with it. 3-4 year old peaches can produce fruit but won’t come into full production until later (maybe year 6?). My 3 year old peach trees this year set a few fruit which I removed since I wanted the trees to grow rather than fruit (and I didn’t want to deal with spraying them so much).
3-4 year old pears… I feel like it’s optimistic to think they will produce. On quince (or other dwarfing rootstock) and a pear variety that is precocious, perhaps you could get pears that quickly… but pears are often very slow to start producing anything.
Also, if trees don’t get enough water during fruit set and the weeks after they won’t produce. It’s less critical later in the season when the fruit is ripening. For a young tree if it doesn’t rain weekly, I water them. For your four year old trees, I’d probably consider watering if it was a long period of no rain in spring (2-3 weeks) or no rain during fruit set.
Finally, you will get a lot of June drop if you have poor pollination. So make sure for the pears you have pollinators.
Some stress will actually induce fruiting. If you just keep fertilizing trees sometimes put on a lot of growth but won’t fruit. there are some charts that say things like >2’ of growth you need less fertilization. However, yours are setting fruit but having June drop?
I would be surprised if the trees would have low N or P with fertilization like that.
When I did my soil samples ( I also am in Ohio and used the OSU extension agency to take them to) they had suggestions as to what to use to increase the amounts to he higher. I did smaller amounts at a few different times during the year. I did not redo the samples yet since I just put the products on them this year and late last fall.
I was surprised as to how different each area was for the test results in my orchard. Mine is in about a 1 1/2 to a two acre area. I do not fill the entire area with fruit trees, like a box with rows. I put mine in a single row in three different areas in that area. I think that gives them better air circulation and better sun exposure.
My peach trees had no fruit on then this year, yet last year they were absolutely loaded with peaches. There had to have been a cold spell right when they were blooming, that is mostly typical here in Ohio. It is usually hit or miss getting peaches. I knew that when I planted them. I started getting peaches on the trees about year 5ish.
I’m not an expert (I just play one on television) but I am in agreement with @benthegirl.
I’m not fertilizing any of my young fruit trees and at present they only get a small fraction of the hours of sunlight that they will eventually receive. I’m letting them set their own pace and am just biding my time until they start producing fruit.
No expert by any means… i looked at the soil samples earlier today and in all honesty I dont think anything is all that much out of whack to even be considered about. As long as the soil drains well the fruit trees should grow well. This forum has taght me one thing… fruit trees need well draining soil. I trenched a few spots and filled in some holes with the tractor this summer, to try and get better draining soil.
Both trees ripened two weeks late for their window. I’m near sure the contender is a contender and 100% on the belle. Im comparing to other orchards in my local area.
The drought is recent. We actually had a very wet spring and summer.
That is an issue for me. Ohio clay. I had to plant my trees on 6-8” mounds. Once we start drying out in may, all good, but they’d die by mid April if planted level. Our entire acreage is like this. Some areas (not the orchard) have standing water all spring unless abnormality dry. Might try gypsum since it helps drainage and one of the soil nutrients I’m low on.
From your prior posts I suggest there may be two key issues that could be affecting your soil fertility:
Clay soils are known to form hard pans making drainage almost impossible since water collects above it. You can investigate this with a pickax by digging down into the soil profile to see if you hit concrete-like compaction. If you do that could be your main issue. Try picking thru the hardpan to determine if you can penetrate it enough to improve drainage. My hardpan on my property varies from 6”-10” thick. But when I punch thru it the soil above drains freely.
Also with clay soils you can amend them by tilling in large amounts of compost or peat moss before each tree is planted. Where trees are already planted on mounds, you can help improve fertility by placing woodchips around each tree. Over time the chips decompose into organic matter that is carried by earthworms into your clay soil. The mulch keeps the clay from drying out during droughts and helps soften clay soils for root penetration. As the woodchips breakdown keep adding more periodically.
Dennis
Kent, Wa
Like I mentioned, it is hit or miss here in Ohio with peaches. The years you get peaches you will probably get a LOT of peaches. Once peaches start to ripen you have got to do something to do with them. Peaches do not last like apples do. They get bad pretty fast. With my 4 peach trees it is a lot of work to get them used before they get bad. I give some away to friends, neighbors, and some to the food bank.
Glad you found 16 varieties to plant and try out.
Thanks Dennis. I did all the above you stated knowing I had an uphill battle. Holed were at least 20" deep and well amended with compost, peat, organic top and native soil. All mounds have a 3-4" wood chip mulch. How deep is your hardpan? I dug a couple 30" holes in the orchard and a few 36-48" elsewhere on the property and have never found that concrete-like layer. Although what is there is definitely nasty clay.
Yep. The orchard across from our church has been gangbusters this year. They’ve been selling decent pecks of seconds for $10 (normally $15) most of the season. I’ve got some near every week. Just picked up peck of the last variety (Victoria) yesterday. Been dry for the past month so brix has been very high. Man are they good! I’m addicted to peaches. Hoping someday I’ll have more than enough to give away.
