In the matter of fertilizers, the peach-grower early learns humility.
He is no sooner certain that his trees must be fertilized and that
he has at last hit upon the right formula than his check plats or
his neighbor's orchard convince him that he is not getting the worth
of his money in fertilizers. In eastern New York, peach-orchards are
very generally fertilized and rather heavily, the amounts and formulas
being nearly as diverse as the men applying them. In western New York,
commercial fertilizers are comparatively little used in peach-orchards.
Experiments in fertilizing peaches in progress at this Station are
inconclusive and there is nothing to offer from the work here as to
what the peach needs in the way of plant-food. In the present state
of our knowledge, about the best the peach-grower can do is to assume
that, if his trees are vigorous, bearing well and making a fair amount
of growth, they need no additional plant-food. If they are not in the
condition described, look to the drainage, tillage and health of the
trees first and the more expensive and less certain fertilization
afterward. More and more, in western New York at least, growers are
carrying on simple experiments to obtain positive evidence as to what
elements of plant-food their trees need.
The following is an example of such an experiment: (1) Acid phosphate
to give about 50 lbs. of phosphoric acid to the acre; (2) phosphate as
above and muriate of potash to give 100 lbs. of potash to the acre;
(3) phosphate and muriate as above and nitrate of soda and dried blood
to give 50 lbs. of nitrogen per acre; (4) six tons of stable manure is
applied on a fourth plat; (5) a similar plat is left unfertilized for a
check.
No fallacy dies harder than that fertilizers will cure yellows. Nitrate
of soda is a great rejuvenator of trees suffering from yellows brought
on by sod or lack of tillage but no fact in peach-orcharding has been
more thoroughly demonstrated than that neither this fertilizer nor any
other will in the least benefit trees suffering from true yellows or
from the somewhat similar trouble, little-peach.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account