There are certainly some useful tidbits in this for those willing to fish them out of the multi-syllabic verbiage. It helps if you read this stuff on a regular basis because it is a bit like a second language.
The most interesting piece I’ve found so far is the suggestion that most benefit of water deficit is achieved with the deficit applied only during the ripening process late in fruit development for many types of fruit, including nectarines, but not peaches. Hmmmm.
That sounds odd
Very interesting Alan. Glanced through it quickly and already saw some useful information. Droughts occur here yearly and the fruit is excellent! I don’t care for the flavor of apples grown in a wet area because of the flavor.
Yeah, we don’t need research to know that fruit is better in dry years, but people who irrigate can benefit from knowing what part of the ripening process creates what effects. I suspect that during the cell division process you don’t want to starve plants for water and most benefits come after.
I haven’t taken any brix measurements, but I’ve noticed fruit flavor suffers mostly from lots of rain a few weeks before ripening. That’s, imo, why early peaches generally aren’t that good here. It generally rains like mad when very early varieties ripen and they taste poor.
I had 18 trees of early varieties of peaches, and this year I didn’t sell a single peach off of those trees as a number one peach. This is basically the second year in a row this has happened. I’m cutting them down this fall and plan to start the season a bit later. Earlystar is the first decent early peach I’ll have. It seems to still produce some decent fruit in lots of rain.
I’ve noticed even when there is lots of water during the fruit development process, as long as the rain shuts off a few weeks before harvest, peach flavor is good. We sold some really good semi-early peaches this year because we had 3 weeks of hot dry weather in June. One customer who routinely buys peaches from me said she got the best peaches she’s ever had during that period (she got Risingstars). They were very sweet during this period, as were all peaches ripening in this window. Then it started raining again in July and quality went down.
The one caveat I’ve noticed the last couple years is that if it is really cool, rainy and cloudy followed by a very rapid dry hot period, +90F (which can easily happen in KS/MO erratic weather) the peaches will become bitter for a short time after the extreme warm up. Peaches harvested then will be bitter for about 3 days, then they will settle down and become sweet.
This all sounds weird I know, but my son and I have picked and tasted too many peaches these last couple years to be imagining this. There are times I’ve cancelled out of farmer’s markets because the peaches were bitter. As I said, the bitterness only lasts a short time before the peaches start to taste much better.
Olpea I noticed that bitterness at times as well and figured the alkaline soil plays a factor in that. We had greens here one year taste metallic but were fine every other year. It’s like the water unlocks some mineral in the soil that has a bitter almost aspirin or metallic like flavor. I thought it was just this soil.
To me, this doesn’t sound weird, and even the linked paper has some info about compounds created by stressed plants that create off tastes, albeit related to water deficit stress.
FN has reported on excessive high brix levels accompanying off flavors, so this is obviously an issue without a lot of researched info- that is specific environmental conditions that produce off-flavors in fruit.
It’s not the excessively high brix that causes off flavors, it’s excessive water deficit.
I’m going to need a couple of hrs to study that paper. It looks like a great reference. Thanks Alan for pointing it out.
I’m glad to see increasing interest in this subject. Perhaps some day it might even become main stream. The first few yrs that I talked about this subject were pretty lonely. Now everyone here seems to be on board to some degree.
Hence the word “accompanying” rather than “causing”.
Also, in my memory, your loneliness was caused by the lack of folks growing fruit under plastic, I believe there were always readers, including myself, interested in deficit irrigation to increase brix. You may remember that 4 or 5 years ago I tried using impermeable plastic to reduce water reaching a peach tree as an experiment probably inspired by you.
I may try this experiment again, but by only excluding water for about the last 6 weeks. The problem is that there may be no reasonable way to exclude significant water from trees in my region. Who knows the extent of the roots plus mycorrhizal reach.
With the drought, deficit irrigation is a pretty hot topic now in the West, from what I gather.
Yes it is but they’re thinking largely about how much they can cut back water after harvest. Not a deliberate deficit with fruit on the tree with a goal to improve fruit quality. If reseachers short water with fruit on the tree it’s largely to see how much yield is lost.
I must have had some influence you’re using my term, deficit irrigation, rather than the articles term, water deficit, that’s more appropriate to non irrigated conditions.
it is the default setting in the mojave desert, so one needs to ‘guesstimate’ how much to irrigate, depending on weather. It is difficult to come up with solid findings due to variances.
while we are guesstimating the optimally-skimpy irrigation for our trees in the dry southwest, folks who are farming at full-scale in wet and rainy regions are themselves guesstimating about what their over-watered and humidified trees will bring to the table. One could expect they won’t be too keen about discussing things which can’t be controlled…
probably relevant only in smaller backyard projects/grown under shelter/potted, which, for most people, may be too much trouble, or sparsely fruiting due to the small tree sizes.
I have read that fruit from unirrigated fruit trees is a hot item in farmers markets in CA so I think it goes beyond your suggestion.[quote=“fruitnut, post:10, topic:6969”]
I must have had some influence you’re using my term, deficit irrigation,
[/quote]
Well, of course you have some influence, your are our guru of brix!
I can’t imagine growing fruit in containers as a way to enhance quality, even if it may be the only way to have some control of water reaching the trees. If I had inadequate land it would be different, I’m sure.
definitely a hobbyist’s approach, and for one who is resigned to harvesting not much more than for home consumption. Am ‘guilty’ of it too, at some point in my life…
It’s relevant to anyone that irrigates with fruit on the tree. That’s probably 90% of commercial US fruit production and most backyard growers even in humid climates. Lots of people on this site east of the Mississippi water anytime there’s a dry spell whether the fruit needs it or not.
definitely relevant in other areas apart from the southwest, if drought conditions are main issues. I was pertaining to Olpea’s case, as evidently, there’s no control of excessive rains at specific times of year. So growing peaches compromised by rainy spells may leave a bitter taste in the mouth.
literally from the bitter(or bland, depending on timing of rains) peaches, and perhaps figuratively, when having to discuss what cannot be controlled.
Most of the orchards around here are dry- irrigation isn’t made available. It is the larger operations with scores of acres of trellised bushes that rely on irrigation.
My clients don’t usually water their fruit trees- unfortunately many of them water their lawns underneath the fruit trees, but many don’t. Trees tend to be the last thing people around here worry about during drought- probably because droughts beyond 30 days are uncommon.
I only worry about watering during establishment on any given site.