Peach Update!

Last year I started part of my project with some mature trees that were already planted at the farm.  The second half of my project requires young trees and we finally got those planted this Fall.  In this part of the study we will be able to compare nitrogen rates and nitrogen application forms (granular versus fertigation), along with leaching potential of the different rates from a very early stage of growth.  We will eventually be able to compare production rates and quality on these trees but the biggest advantage of the young trees is the ability to measure leaching.  With measuring leaching we are observing how much nitrogen is actually being used by the tree and how much is being lost through the soil profile.  One of the concerns with increasing the nitrogen rate on peaches in Florida is that the tree may not use that extra nitrogen and that extra may end up in the water table as it filters through the soil.  Since we can't see the water table directly we can hopefully monitor the movement and estimate how much is being lost among the treatments.  We don't want to do this with the mature trees because we don't have a good way to apply fertigation and a big part of the study is comparing the two application types (granular and fertigation).  In order to accomplish this we have installed a whole new orchard, including irrigation and injectors for fertigation and then planted our young trees!  In order to do everything we felt necessary we have planted 200 trees total!

Baby trees all in a row.

These are the sprinklers for each tree.

Hard to see but here is all 200 new trees!

I will be starting the second year of research with our mature trees and when we went to check on them earlier this week I was really surprised to see some of them already blooming!  There weren't enough blooming to be concerned about the upcoming freeze (yep, we got down to 20 degrees Fahrenheit here for two nights!) but it was still crazy to see peaches bloom in January!

While it is still down time as far as production goes, there is a lot coming up to do for the project and hopefully I can do a better job keeping you all up to date!

Peaches, millions of peaches...

So, I harvested 30 trees, three times, weighing total fruit weight per tree, and taking a sub-sample of five fruit per quadrant - or twenty fruit per tree.  After each harvest, each fruit needed to be photographed, exterior color measured, interior color measured, firmness tested, and then more sub-samples taken for even more tests in the future.  All of this included many hours on my feet, several very late nights and dealing with multiple mushy, yucky, stinky peaches.

Needless to say, I'm really over peaches right now and may continue to be for quite some time, as such that's all I want to tell you about the event and am now going to try to forget it...

Peach Update!

 My peaches are getting so big!  These are pictures from yesterday when I was fertilizing them!

Further down the row were these Blueberries! I'm amazed by how big they are so soon in the year!  They should be ready to pick sometime next week!

While they aren't blue yet they are starting to turn colors, right now they are a undefinable mix of green and pink.

Peach Watch!

 This Tuesday (the 22nd) I was at Citra again to apply a different kind of fertilizer, and here are the gorgeous peaches that met me!  I was amazed at how big they already are, in MARCH!

I took a couple of pictures next to my hand so you can get a size comparison.  Hopefully we will be harvesting mid to late April at the rate they are going.  I can't wait!

Right next to my peaches is a plot of early ripening blueberries.  They too are way further along than I expected!  Although they aren't changing color yet, they may be ripe early next month!  I can't wait because I have already offered to swap labor for fruit, and some of the folks in blueberries have offered me the same for peaches.

Welcome to early summer in Florida!

Chris kept me company while doing some studying!

The Peach Watch!

2-15-2011

It has been so fun to watch the peaches grow!  This is definitely not like home!  I went down one week and they were in full bloom with not many leaves, the next week the leaves were all popped out and most of the flowers were gone, then the next week there were baby peaches!!!

2-15-2011

2-22-2011

2-22-2011

3-2-2011

3-2-2011

3-2-2011

3-2-2011