We have come a long way with orchard systems in the past 60 years.
A much better understanding of the principles of orchard and tree canopy management has helped improve this aspect of fruit growing, and has greatly increased the potential yields.
But the future will require a significant higher level of precision in our management to reach those potentials consistently.
One important aspect of precision management is to plant good quality nursery trees for high tree performance.
Since an orchard starts in the nursery, we all know that a good start of a high density planting is critical.
The benefits of planting container-grown fruit trees* may take some time to realise, and far outweigh the negatives.
Fruit growers can expect more and more nurseries will make container-grown fruit tree available because:
Trees can be planted any time of the year.
The root system remains intact, therefore there is less risk of transplant shock.
Trees develop a good root structure with many fine feeder roots, which gives them a good start in the orchard.
Experiments in the USA has shown that apple trees had up to double the amount of fine roots compared with bare-rooted trees. Shoot growth of container-grown trees was also superior.
Trees do not need to be cool-stored while waiting to be planted.
Trees are not damaged as they are not bundled and tightly stacked in large numbers in trucks.
Trees do not need to be kept wet during planting to prevent the roots from drying out.
In the orchard, you don’t need to dig as big a hole for container-grown trees as for bare-rooted trees.
Reports from Australia indicate that Ellepot trees were slower to develop initially, but caught up with good quality bare-rooted trees by mid-summer, and grew better over the whole season after planting.
A long-term trial that started in 2018 at Michigan State University showed that Ellepot apple trees made twice the amount of growth compared with bare-rooted (liner) trees.
Trees grow more uniformly in the orchard and fill their space faster than bare-rooted trees.
Cost of container-grown trees appears to be similar to bare-rooted trees. However, trees in Ellepots may be 10 to 15 per cent dearer than bare-rooted trees—but are claimed to be better and more uniform trees. In Israel, the cost of trees in black plastic bags is the same as bare-rooted trees.
Ellepot propagation system (cont next issue)
See this article in Tree Fruit Sept 2021
*Acknowledgement: Some facts in this article were sourced from Australian Fruit Grower, Volume 15, Issue 2. (Find it here)
