10. 



type of soil in a large number o£ orchards throughout Massa- 

 chusetts . 



Ten research sites have been selected, each site being 

 representative for a certain type of soil. The following soil 

 series were chosen on the basis of importance for the New England 

 fruit industry: Charlton, Colrain (2 sites), Paxton, Shelburne, 

 Wethersf ield , Woodbridge, Ridgebury, and Cabot. The first two 

 soil series do not have a hardpan and are well drained. The 

 other soils have a hardpan within 3 ft. depth and are increasingly 

 wetter; Paxton, Shelburne, and Wethersfield being well drained 

 and Ridgebury and Cabot representing the poorly drained soils. 



The tree planting at each experimental site will consist of 

 standard type 'Mcintosh' on either M7A, M26, M9/MM106, and M9/ 

 MMlll rootstock. Spur 'Delicious' on M7A rootstock will be used 

 as a pollinator. Each row will contain the four different root- 

 stocks at random with the 'Delicious' in the middle. Spacing 

 between trees in a row will be 14 ft. There will be 8 rows spaced 

 20 ft. apart. The planting will be established in the spring of 1982 . 

 Most soils at the experimental sites have already been described, 

 classified and sampled for physical and chemical laboratory 

 analyses . 



During the second phase of this project a large number of 

 orchards are visited. Production of selected rootstocks is ev- 

 aluated, especially in relation to soil type. Rootstocks, in 

 general, seem to grow and produce reasonably well on soils with 

 a hardpan at depths greater than 20". This was substantiated by 

 observations made in the fall of 1979 at the Horticultural 

 Research Center in Belchertown. Trees planted in loamy soils 

 with a hardpan within 20" did, in general, poorly or perished; 

 while rootstocks in deeper, better drained soils did much better. 

 During the dry 1980 season, M7 rootstocks were observed to suffer 

 on shallow soils with a restrictive layer within 24" of the soil 

 surface. Tree growth and especially anchorage was poor and several 

 trees tipped over. Growth of MM106 on well drained Paxton soils 

 (hardpan within 36") was judged excellent to good even during the 

 dry 1980 summer. 



******************** 



V. Effect of soil water and depth to hardpan on rootstocks . 

 Peter L.M. Veneman 



More than 50% of the Massachusetts orchards are located on 

 relatively shallow soils over bedrock or are at some depth under- 

 lain by a hardpan. Both types of phenomena limit root penetration 

 and ultimately restrict tree development. High seasonal or per- 

 manent water tables may have the same detrimental effects on root- 

 stock performance. This project is an attempt to accelerate the 

 evaluation of the effects of soil moisture regime and depth of 



