Hello all, I agree with most of what came before, but would like to add that here we consider apple trees to be beneficial to the soil, adding organic matter to the soil, and enhancing soil microbiology, provided applications of certain specific pesticides are avoided. Certainly, crops like cereals take a lot more nutrients from the soil, and deplete its organic matter content. On the specific issue of SARD, that can be a real problem. Personally, I prefer to wait a few years after removing an orchard before replanting, and use break crops in the meantime, and I also attempt to homogenise the soil in the interim. I prefer to have a fairly uniform new planting, which, if weak, can be given extra water, fertiliser, and compost perhaps, rather than having some strong rows and some weak ones, which require differing management. Regarding Lee's initial question, I would feel that if you are planting trees on MM106 at only 1.5 metres apart, that over-vigour rather than weakness will be the eventual problem. MM106 is only semi-dwarfing, and certainly in this part of the world, we would not be planting trees on this rootstock so closely together, no matter how long apples had been grown on the site beforehand. I would guess that MM106 planted this closely will produce trees of twenty feet or more, which is, I think, much higher than optimum. Con Traas
-----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Dave Rosenberger Sent: 08 January 2007 04:47 To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Apple-Crop: Apple Replant Syndrome Quick addendum: Those wanting more detailed info on extensive field trials related to apple replant disease in NY may want to check the following web site http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/hort/fq/spring01/FQSpring01.pdf and ready the article titled as follows: Developing An Integrated Program for Diagnosis and Control of Replant Problems In New York Apple Orchards Ian A. Merwin, Rachel Byard,Terence L. Robinson, Stephen Carpenter, Stephen A. Hoying, Kevin A. Iungerman, and Michael Fargione Soil bioassays and fumigation were not particularly effective in NY! -- ************************************************************** Dave Rosenberger Professor of Plant Pathology Office: 845-691-7231 Cornell University's Hudson Valley Lab Fax: 845-691-2719 P.O. Box 727, Highland, NY 12528 Cell: 845-594-3060 http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/pp/faculty/rosenberger/
