1. Josh Massey BAE/SOIL 4213 April 20, 2009

2. Establishing an Orchard Site selection Variety selection Water sources – dryland vs. irrigated Equipment selection Use of pesticides and fertilizers

3. Site Selection Know soil type Prefer well drained, sandy loam to sandy clay loam soils Landscape position Upland vs. valley issues with water movement and drainage, issues with air movement

4. Variety Selection Most fruit trees consist of a rootstock and scion, so two varieties to consider with every tree In OK, need a cold hardy rootstock in order to produce quality vegetative growth to support fruiting growth Rootstock in pecans – Colby, Giles, Peruque Rootstock in peaches – Halford

5. Variety Selection Scion selection In pecans, native or improved varieties Native – not especially reliable to sizing, not uniform Improved – developed varieties, uniform sizing and kernel filling, have differing resistances to pecan scab, temperatures, taste differences In peaches, variety selection depends on: timing of ripening, freestone vs. clingstone, temperature and disease resistance

6. Water Management Irrigation can be timed with tensiometers or electrical conductivity (EC) sensors Irrigation is usually drip tubing with in-line emitters and can be above or underground

7. Herbicide Management Timing of sprays is important Maximizes effect In orchards -- in strips or around individual trees Strips – fast and easy Around trees – slower, good for minimizing erosion depending on site location Take special care around young trees, may need to use a shielded boom or grow tubes on trees

8. Typical Peach Orchard

9. Insect and Disease Management Again, timing is important Need to use integrated pest management techniques Properly identify pest and know life cycle Lots of models and decision support on Agweather portion of Mesonet site www.agweather.mesonet.org

10. Insect and Disease Management How much damage can be done before reaching an economic threshold? Many high value crops depend on the consumer purchasing them. Appearance, taste, and size of fruit all contribute to fruit quality Many sprays are conducted by calendar in order to keep suppression pressure on disease and pests

11. Insects and Disease

12. Equipment Proper calibration and timing of application are key to effective sprays Keep equipment clean and maintained

13. Sensing technology Basic Tissue samples Tensiometers and watermarks Scouting More Advanced Sensors for pecan weevil damage Sensor-actuated spray systems Aerial sensing of ET

14. Acknowledgements Stover, E., J. Salvatore, and F. Wirth. 2003. Pesticide Spray Reduction from Using a Sensor-actuated Spray System in Indian River Grapefruit. HortTechnology 13: 178-181. Clarke, T.R. 1997. An Empirical Approach for Detecting Crop Water Stress Using Multispectral Airborne Sensors. HortTechnology 7: 9-16. Nunez-Elisea, R., B. Schaffer, M. Zekri, S.K. O’Hair, and J.H. Crane. 2000. Monitoring Soil Water Content in Tropical Fruit Orchards in Southern Florida with Multi-sensor Capacitance Probes and Tensiometers. HortScience 35: 487. OSU Extension Factsheets. Available at http://pods.dasnr.okstate.edu/docushare/dsweb/HomePage.

15. Questions?