So organized and well thought out…beautiful!
1 Like
Thanks Jeff.
We’ve used quite a bit of the unmentionable too. Sounds like you have an effective way to prevent drift. Always curious what other growers are using for weed control. We’ve used all kinds of pre-emergents (group 5, 14, 29) but I’ll admit it’s frustrating that they lose activity after a few months.
What is so impressive are your row middles. They look perfect. No broadleaf weeds at all. Looks like one could practice golf on those row middles 
Did you use some broadleaf herbicide on the middles (clopyralid, etc.)? Or was that just the result of really careful management of seeding, mowing?
That was a very good move installing drainage below the planting area! When we started, we didn’t have enough money to install field tile under the area. All the other ground prep was so expensive. We plan to install some field tile in some row middles in the future for drainage.
2 Likes
Thank you! We’re planning to rehab the middle rows this fall with tall fescue. Current both orchards are weeds and unfortunately last fall I ordered tons of tall fescue bags of seed and it never came due to being backordered. I used to own a turf care business so I’m ready to have our middle rows looking gorgeous with tall fescue. My wife is a photographer and that’s the main reason I started our first orchard planting so keeping it groomed well is very important so we can also charge other photographers to utilize our orchards.
The big struggle is finding products to manage the tall fescue weed control wise that won’t cause issues with the peach trees.
2 Likes
I once had 120 stone fruit trees on dwarfing rootstock planted in a 1700 sq ft greenhouse. They bloomed and bore fruit for about two crops before they were removed for other things. My initial planting was 4ft by 8ft. I liked that and those trees were productive for 8 yrs. That’s about what I’d go back to if I planted again.
This was all with deficit irrigation and no fertilizer. Pruning was mostly monthly summer pruning with some winter renewal pruning. Height was kept at 8ft.
1 Like
We don’t have a lot of broadleaf weeds here and keep it mowed like a lawn all summer. Mostly consists of grasses, clover and dandelions.
1 Like
I’m planting a small peach orchard tomorrow, about 20 trees, and I’m going to do Y-trellis on 6-8ft between trees by 18ft (row-row distance is already set, otherwise I think I’d go closer). I don’t have a use for output of a full size tree and I’d rather get a spread of harvest times in the same space. you may have seen the various Y-trellis threads here, not sure if it’s the right thing for a commercial operation though
Love the overhead! Can you share your plans for irrigation and also your varieties?
Desiree
RubyPrince
SummerPrince
Garnet Beauty
RedHaven
O-Henry
August Rose
Belle of Georgia
Intrepid
Winblo
Bounty
Contender
JulyPrince
Elberta
Early AugustPrince
FirePrince
China Pearl
Evelynn
Caroking
Selena
Jefferson
Carolina Gold
Tiana
Monroe
FlamePrince
Victoria
Big Red
The smaller planting I have:
Harvester
Elberta
Contender
Winblo
Flameprince
SunnyJ
For irrigation the larger planting we have an irrigation pond on site and I plan to run micro sprinklers. The big question is piping type as poly tubing went way up in price.
The smaller orchard I have two large rainwater tanks and can supplement when needed. Micro sprinklers with poly tubing.
We get by with two 1 GPH emitters per tree but I noticed that most of the larger growers in the Sandhills area use micro sprinklers.
I really like your topology and field layout.
Have you spoken with Mike Parker about your plans?
I’m in clay soil so technically could go without irrigation entirely but to increase fruit size and to help during drought times irrigation helps.
The Sandhills of NC definitely do things differently mainly due to how fast the soil drains so they usually irrigate a lot more than someone in clay soil would as you noted. They also have to deal with damaging nematodes and such too.
I have spoken with Mike Parker! They’re great folks at the research center and have been super helpful.
1 Like
You are lucky if you don’t have nematode problems. My soil is much different than the sandhills too. It looks a lot like yours but I have a big Nematode problem. Are you only planting on Guardian?
1 Like
Interesting. I actually had an in depth soil analysis done and proved to not have a nematode issue. I am mainly on guardian and some halford. I also have a few trees on Lovell.
The only real issue I’ve had is two spots on our smaller planting with low soil ph. Isolated to literally two trees. I fixed the issue and saves the trees. Since the issue I test a few times a year and apply calflo to correct ph and it works well.
1 Like