Costs and Returns from Three Peach 

 Training Systems During the First 

 Three Seasons 



Wesley R. Autio 



Department of Plant & Soil Sciences, University of Massachusetts 



In southern New England, approximately 1000 

 acres of land are planted to peach trees. Little 

 research has addressed the problems of peach grow- 

 ing, particularly in the area of cultural manage- 

 ment. Training systems are an as- 

 pect of cultural management that 

 can affect the economic returns of an 

 orchard greatly. 



The primary training system used 

 for peach trees in southern New En- 

 gland is a delayed-open-center sys- 

 tem. In a tree ofthis form, the central 

 trunk is dominant early in the life of 

 the tree, and as the tree grows, lower 

 scaffolds grow upward and become 

 equal to or stronger than the central 

 trunk. Ideally, the central trunk 

 should be removed above the lower 

 scaflFolds at maturity, leaving an open 

 center tree; however, the central 

 trunk often is left in the tree. The 

 problem that arises from having a 

 central trunk in this type of tree is 

 that light penetration into the center 

 of the canopy is very poor, and over 

 time, productivity declines in a large 

 portion of the tree's interior. 



Because of the high value of peach 

 fruit, production efficiency should be 

 a major concern of peach growers. 

 Evaluation of production practices is 

 critical to economic viability. To this 

 end, I established a trial in 1990, 

 including nine replications of Ernie's 

 Choice/Lovell trained to an open cen- 

 ter, a central leader, or a delayed 

 open center. The goal ofthis planting 

 is to evaluate fully the economic vi- 

 ability of these three training sys- 

 tems. 



The Systems 



Open Center. Open-center trees were spaced 18 

 by 20 feet (121 trees per acre). Trees were headed 



Table 1. Costs and returns per acre associated with Ernie's Choice 

 peach in three training systems. Land preparation costs were derived 

 from V/hite and DeMarree (1992) and Fuller et al. (1991). 

 Establishment costs were derived from actual measurements made 

 during the planting of this trial. Growing costs, with the exception of 

 pruning, were derived from Mizelle and Westberry (1989). Pruning 

 labor costs were from actual measurements from this trial. 



Costs - Year 1 



Net - Year 1 



1247 



-$1247 



1914 



-$1914 



1239 



-$1239 



Fruit Notes, Summer, 1993 



