CONTAINER-GROWN PEACH ORCHARDS

Unexpected natural calamities like hail, spring frost, heavy storms or a heat wave may cause severe damage to fruit crops with very little which can be done to prevent the losses. The reason for this is the complete exposure of the tree to such conditions in the orchard. Although protecting the crop is technically possible, the procedure is very frequently too costly to be employed commercially in the conventional orchard. Another type of problems often affecting fruit crops is soil-related. Soil is the cheapest medium but generally not the best one for growing plants. Physical, chemical and biological problems related to various soil types plague many of the crops we grow. The means available for improving the tree performance in many cases are far from correcting the situation, resulting in a poorer response than the optimal under the specific condition.

As small trees became available, another attractive option emerged, of growing trees in containers filled with a better medium than soil. This relieves the tree from the two main constraints of climate and soil. The peach excels as a container-grown plant by its response to pruning, by producing fruiting trees from rooted cuttings, by the unique bearing habit enabling very early bearing and by its sensitivity to the time of ripening.

Initial examination of growing container-peach trees was started in Israel 6 years ago. Today, small scale commercial orchards are grown for an extremely early peach crop in the Jordan Valley and elsewhere. Results of trials and commercial utilization of the system are described in this paper.