Table 1. Continued. 



Category 



at planting to leave four small 

 shoots arising from the trunk be- 

 tween 20 and 24 inches from the 

 ground. Each of these shoots was 

 headed to two viable buds. As the 

 trees have developed, shoots grow- 

 ing into the center of the trees have 

 been removed, with either dormant 

 or summer pruning, and outer lat- 

 erals have been pruned to direct 

 their growth at about 60° from ver- 

 tical. The goal is to have trees with 

 four major scaffolds growing out- 

 ward from the trunk in a vase form 

 and reaching a height of approxi- 

 mately eight feet when they have 

 filled their allotted space. In the 

 mature tree, light distribution will 

 be good, and only a small portion in 

 the center of the tree will have too 

 little light to maintain the produc- 

 tion of fruiting wood. 



Central Leader. Central-leader 

 trees were spaced 10 by 20 feet (218 

 trees per acre). Very little pruning 

 was done at planting. As trees 

 have developed, scaffolds have been 

 pruned to direct their growth at 

 about 80° from vertical. Upper 

 limbs have been kept short so that 

 the trees have a conical shape. 

 Upright shoots arising from the 

 nearly flat lateral branches have 

 been removed during summer 

 pruning. The goal is to produce 

 small trees that are eight feet tall 

 at maturity with lower laterals that 

 extend no more than five feet from 

 the trunk. With this form, nearly 

 all of the canopy will maintain the 

 potential to produce fruiting wood. 

 With more trees per acre than a 

 standard system, higher early pro- 

 duction should be obtained. 



Delayed Open Center. Delayed- 

 open-center trees were spaced 18 by 20 feet (121 

 trees per acre). Very little pruning was done at 

 planting. As the trees have developed, lower scaf- 

 folds have been treated much the same as in the 

 open-center trees; however, a central trunk has been 

 maintained. The goal of this system is to have an 

 open-center tree at maturity, but the productivity is 

 higher early in its life, because it has more canopy 

 volume in the form of a central leader. The central 

 leader must be removed before the shading in the 

 center of the tree results in significant reductions in 



Costs - Year 2 277 



Net - Year 2 -$277 



year 3 - 1992 



Growing 



Fertilizer 53 



Spray materials 254 



General supplies 50 



General labor 40 



Equipment 65 



Dormant pruning labor 16 



Summer pruning labor 12 



Thinning labor 8 



Harvest and sales 



Harvest labor 38 



Packaging 24 



Selling 24 



Costs - Year 3 584 



Returns - Year 3 709 



Net -Year 3 $125 



286 



-$286 



53 

 254 

 50 

 40 

 65 

 25 

 22 

 15 



89 

 56 

 56 



725 



1675 



$950 



274 



-$274 



53 

 254 

 50 

 40 

 65 

 14 

 12 

 8 



64 

 40 

 40 



640 



1191 



$551 



the potential to produce fruiting wood. 



The Economics 



Table 1 presents the costs and returns over the 

 first three growing seasons from this trial. Much of 

 the growing costs were obtained from other sources 

 as described in the caption of the table, but planting 

 costs, training costs, and yields were obtained from 

 this trial. For labor, $8 per hour was used through- 

 out this analysis. Equipment costs were assessed at 



Fruit Notes, Summer, 1993 



