12 



It is intended to maintain these trees at a height of about 71/2 

 feet, with a well-defined "fruiting table" at ? 3/4 feet. The tip of this 

 central leader tree will not be allowed to become dominant, by continually 

 cutting it back to a suitable weaker leader. 



Before planting, the entire orchard floor was sprayed with a herbicide 

 mixture of simazine and paraquat, and follow-up spot applications of diuron 

 were used to kill persistent weeds. A grass alley was then established 

 (before planting) and remained until the start of the 1982 season, when it 

 became apparent that soil structure was collapsing, and at one point in 1983 

 the leaves on the trees wilted. To correct this problem the alleys were 

 again subsoil ed in August, 1983, and grassed down with perennial ryegrass in 

 the spring of 1984. These grassed alleyways are a temporary measure and 

 will be killed when soil structure and organic matter are judged to again be 

 satisfactory. 



An overhead irrigation system was erected in the orchard. The risers 

 for the system are 51/2 feet high in the M9 block and 9 3/4 feet high in 

 the MMine block. In 1982 and 1983 this system was used to prevent frost 

 damage and during the dry summers of 1983 and 1984 irrigation was an impor- 

 tant contributor to the yields obtained from these blocks. 



In 1981 it was apparent that bloom on the pollenizer trees was inade- 

 quate, and this problem reoccurred in 1982 and 1983. To overcome the 

 problem a bouquet of bloom was placed in the center of each group of 5 'Cox' 

 trees. These bouquets were kept in water in a plastic bag that was looped 

 around a nail on the stake supporting the tree. A fresh bouquet was placed 

 in the bag after 4 days. By 1^84 pollenizer bloom was sufficient to avoid 

 this task. Fach year hives of bees were placed in the orchard on the south 

 side near the windbreak when 10-15% of the bloom was open. 



Yield from these trees was about 8 bushels per acre in 1981 (the 3rd 

 growing season) regardless of rootstock. In 1982 the M9 and MM106 trees 

 produced 172 and 176 bushels per acre, respectively. In 1983, M9 and MM106 

 trees yielded 334 and 290 bushels per acre. M9 and MM106 graded out 82% and 

 87% Class 1 fruit, repectively, in 1983. Since the average yield of 'Cox' 

 in England is only 225 bushels per acre, it is evident that this orchard, in 

 only its fourth year, is performing very well. 



In 1983 the spray program cost the equivalent of $350 per acre. Almost 

 half of this cost was accounted for by nutritional and growth regulator 

 sprays. These consisted of 4 applications of a commercial gibberellin 

 (fiA4+7) spray used to improve fruit finish, and 5 applications of a commer- 

 cial phosphorus mixture, used to improve storage quality of fruit. 



Management decisions for this orchard are made by a committee of East 

 Mailing researchers headed by the Director of the Research Station. The 

 industry is kept well informed of the orchard's progress, problems that are 

 encountered, and responses that are made to correct the problems, by an 

 ongoing series of articles that appear frequently in The Growe r, a commer- 

 cial horticulture weekly magazine. This unusual project not only allows the 

 growers to observe modifications that can be made when unexpected problems 

 arise. It is a fine example of "putting theory into practice." 



