Orchard Management

Successful management of a stone fruit orchard requires knowledge of many aspects of plant growth, pollination, and fruit production. The “Fruit Report” website was developed by Scott Johnson, Kevin Day, and Ted DeJong to summarize and highlight decades of research conducted at UC Davis in stone fruit orchard establishment and management practices. Specifically the “Fruit Report” website contains recommendations, and links to reports, on the following management topics:

• Orchard Establishment
• Pruning & Training
• Pollination
• Fruit thinning
• Girdling
• Nutrition & Fertilization

Two online databases including hundreds of research reports on peach, nectarine, plum and prune in California are available. The California Tree Fruit Agreement (CTFA) promoted and funded research projects on all aspects of stone fruit production, orchard establishment and orchard management beginning in the 1930s. The California Tree Fruit Agreement Research Database webpage contains copies of all research reports funded by the CTFA from 1984 to 2011. Additionally, The California Dried Plum Board has provided funding for research in California for over 50 years. The board also provided funding to develop a Dried Plum Research Reports Database website includes electronic copies of all research reports funded since 1961, with only a few exceptions.

Reports are organized by year and research category including:

• Orchard Establishment
• Cultivars & Rootstocks
• Tree Nutrition
• Water & Soil Management
• Tree Growth & Development
• Flower & Fruit Development
• Pests (Caterpillars, Insects, Mites, Nematodes, and Vertebrates)
• Disease
• Molecular Biology
• Physiological Disorders
• Postharvest