Media Contact:
Jeannette E. Warnert
UC Ag and Natural Resources
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Farmers to tour orchard with full-sized fruit trees growing in sand tanks

Fresno - Farmers will tour an orchard at the UC Kearney Research and Extension Center Friday, June 25, to get a first-hand look at research underway that will determine for the first time the detrimental effects and benefits of specific nutrients on the health of stone fruit trees and the quality of their fruit.

In 2000, research scientist Scott Johnson installed 60 6-by-12-foot tanks four-feet deep and filled each one with 19,000 pounds of sand. He planted a plum tree, yellow-flesh peach tree and white-flesh nectarine tree in each tank. The sand holds the trees up, but supplies no nutrients, so all the nutrients for tree development are spoon-fed by scientists.

"This is the definitive study on peach, plum and nectarine nutrition anywhere in the world. It is also the first nutritional study ever done on white-fleshed fruit -- which now make up about 20 to 25% of the California industry," said Kevin Day, UC Cooperative Extension Tulare County farm advisor. "Scott has been able to control all the factors, so he is learning much more about tree fruit nutrition than we can gather from working with trees in typical orchards."

The field day begins at 8 a.m. with a variety display. Local tree fruit nurseries will display from 40 to 50 varieties of peaches, plums and nectarines. From 9 to 10 a.m. the farmers will visit the tree fruit nutrient management research site.

The meeting is at the UC Kearney Research and Extension Center, 9240 South Riverbend Ave. in Parlier. The meeting is free and no pre-registration is required. Continuing education credit has been requested.

For more information contact Kevin Day at 559-685-3309, Ext. 211, krday@ucdavis.edu.

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