Nutrient Management for Peaches. 

 III. Developing a Nutrient-management 

 Program for Your Orchard 



Karen I. Hauschild 



Department of Plant & Soil Sciences, University of Massachusetts 



In Parts I and II of this series of 

 articles, I described inputs and criteria 

 that you can use to assess your peach 

 orchard's nutrient needs. In this 

 article, I will present information that 

 will help you provide for the nutritional 

 needs of your peaches based on all the 

 inputs given previously as well as on 

 leaf analysis standards, and on the 

 composition of alternative sources of 

 these nutrients. 



As mentioned in the previous 

 articles, peach leaf analysis is the best, 

 most reliable method for determining 

 the nutritional status of your trees. 

 For the most comprehensive data, a 

 companion soil test will also give the 

 soil pH, amounts of nutrients in the 

 soil, and other factors that can help you 

 assess the most effective, efficient, 

 economical, and environmentally sound nutri- 

 ent-management program. To increase the 

 value of this effort on an orchard-wide basis, be 

 sure to take samples from all orchard blocks, or 

 at the very least from blocks that have different 

 soil types, planting histories, ground covers, 

 etc. It is essential for a nutrient-management 

 program to be custom designed for each orchard 

 block. Although such a process is time 

 consuming and may be cost ineffective early in 

 the process, over time this approach will be 

 beneficial to the trees, land, quality of fruit, and 

 your bottom line. 



Soil Test 



For tree fruits, soil tests are recommended 



primarily to obtain soil pH, but soil tests 

 provide quidelines on the relative amounts of 

 major plant nutrients and other factors that 

 affect soil quality as well. Table 1 gives a 

 typical soil test. 



For tree fruits, buffer pH is used to 

 determine liming needs. To make a 

 recommendation, we use species requirements, 

 soil type, and buffer pH to determine the 

 appropriate amount of lime that will be 

 required to bring the pH to 6.5. To decide what 

 type of lime to use, compare the relative levels 

 of calcium and magnesium in the soil test. If 

 the soil shows a higher level of calcium than 

 magnesium, you should use a high-magnesium 

 (dolomitic) lime. But if the level of magnesium 

 is higher than the level of calcium, it would be 



10 



Fruit Notes, Volume 61 (Number 4), Fall, 1996 



