COMPETITIVE VEGETATIVE ORCHARD COVERS REDUCE PEACH ROOTING

Abstract

Peach trees (`Biscoe'/Lovell) were planted in March, 1988 in ten different ground cover management systems. The trees were planted at the Sandhills Research Station in Southeastern North Carolina on a Candor sand and Eunola sandy loam. In December, 1991 the trench profile method was used to evaluate root distribution under the six orchard floor management systems of nimblewill, bare ground control, centipedegrass, brome, bahiagrass, and weedy control. Trenches were dug parallel to the tree row 60 cm from the center of the row on both sides of the tree. Grids 1 meter square, sectioned into 10 cm squares, were placed on the profile walls and root distribution (in three size categories) was recorded for 1 meter on each side of the tree in each trench. Root numbers were greatly reduced under the vegetative covers that provided the greatest suppression of vegetative tree growth. Total root densities under the trees in the vegetative covers were ranked into three size categories which were correlated with the amount of vegetative tree growth.