North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Alan Haigh" <alandhaigh@gmail.com>]

Lucky wrote, "when you've severed the roots of these pecans and
seen a concurrent improvement in the lot of the
peaches, is it because you've caused a reduction in
juglone, or removed a significant degree of root
competition?"

 

No, I manage the competition of nearby forest trees in a lot of the sites I manage and it affects all the species I try to grow- this is specifically a peach problem at this site.  In the worst cases of competition from forest trees at other sites this trenching method has been succesful.  Once the fruit trees are established they hold there own. 

 

Peaches do need more water than other trees but the problem at this site gets even worse on wet years.  If you have never seen a correlation with pecan and stunted growth of peaches I am really at a loss on this one.

 

The biggest mystery is that the trees grow with excellent vigor immediately after planting and than runt out later.  The same thing with the raspberries.  Peaches are growing well in the same general area further away from the pecans but just as close to forest trees as competitive for water and nutrients as the pecans.  If the trees didn't grow well at first I might be able to attribute the problem to some kind of toxicity in the soil (let's say excess boron to be topical).