Orchard
Farms
Module 3
Orchards have played an
important role in the communities for
many centuries, providing a focal
point, a gathering space, and a place
where people and the rest of nature
successfully work together to create
abundant harvests, providing fresh
fruit long before the time of global
freight.
Orchard
is a piece of land planted
with fruit trees or nut
trees. It is also known as
fruit farm.
Types of Orchard Farms
[Link] Orchard.
The common type of orchard that focuses
on fruit-bearing trees.
This facility cares different fruit-bearing trees
such as mango, avocado, durian, mangosteen,
jackfruit, lanzones, rambutan, and many others.
Citrus trees such as pomelo, lemon, lime or
orange, may be grown in large citrus orchards, or
individually in smaller area.
2. Nut Orchard
This facility that focuses on
nut-bearing trees. The tree nuts
that are popular in our country
are cashew nuts and pili nuts.
This category also includes
coconuts and cacaos.
[Link] Orchard.
This type of orchard is established and
managed intensively and entirely to
produce large quantity of improved
seeds. The seeds in the orchard
are sold to large agricultural facilities and
commercial distributors for resale to the
public in small seed packets.
Orchard Gardening
based on Location,
Climate, and Market
Demands
A. Location
Treeswill be more productive when
they are planted in a place suitable for
them. Topography affects plant growth
through differential incidence of solar
radiation, wind velocity, soil type,
temperature effect and even the level
of the sea. Below
2. Climate
The right time, season or condition
of the place is equally important
as choosing the landscape where
trees should be planted.
Adaptability of plants/trees to grow
depend much on the temperature
of the place whether it is humid,
wet, cold, windy and the like.
3. Market Demand
This is something to consider
especially when an orchardist is
inclined to a business. He must have
an idea of the fruits desired by many
people on all occasions, availability of
fruits in different locality, fruits in
season, and even pricing for him to
have a better profit.
Ways of Planting/Propagating
Trees and Fruit–Bearing Trees
[Link] new plants produced through marcotting,
grafting and budding will be exactly like the parent’s
plants where the characteristics of the parent plant will
be replicated.
2.
The fruit tress grown from seeds may take years
before they start to bear fruit. But the trees grown from
marcotting, grafting and budding start to bear fruits
much earlier.
[Link] less attention in their early years than the
plants grown from seeds.
Budding
is the process of transferring the
lateral bud from the scion (a mature
branch) to the stock (a seedling plant)
of the same family.
The two types of budding:
1. Patch budding- is widely
used on fruit trees with thick bark.
2. T-budding
Grafting
is the art of joining two pieces of living
plant tissue together a root system
(root stock) with a shoot system
(scion) in such a manner that they will
unite and subsequently grow and
develop as one composite plant. There
are several types of grafting, such as
cleft, saddle, splice and whip, and
tongue.
Marcotting
also called as air layering,
is a method of propagation
in which the stems are
induced to root while they
are still growing on the
mother plant. This method
is considered the oldest in
propagating fruit trees.
Sources of
Fruit-Bearing
Trees
1.
Commercial Nursery – Run by private individuals
usually offering landscaping materials and services.
2.
Agricultural Institution – A school that offers a
course related to agriculture and other plant studies.
[Link] of Agriculture – Responsible for
any agricultural activities in terms of vegetables and
fruits.
[Link] of Plant Industry – They develop
scientific improvement for each plant species in a
locality and adjacent places.
Caring for
Seedlings
1. Water the plants twice a day. Do this in the early
morning and in the late afternoon.
2. Apply fertilizer in the soil. Use organic fertilizer.
3. Cultivate the soil around the plants to allow the
roots to breathe.
4. Exterminate pests or insects. The following are
recommended for best results:
a. Water the plants.
b. Fumigate the tree or plant using charcoal and
dried leaves.
c. Remove insects and pests using hands or
tweezers.
5. Pull the grasses or weeds surrounding
the plants because they compete for the
nutrients which are intended for the
plants.
6. Remove dried leaves and cut carefully
the dried or infected branches.
7. Monitor the growth of plants.
There are ways of caring or maintaining
the seedlings. These are:
1. Give them plenty of light.
2. Feed the seedlings
3. Thin Seedlings as needed.
4. Guard against Leggy Plants.
5. Keep the seedlings moist
6.
Protect Against Damping Off
Disease.
Layout Design of
Orchard Gardens
The layout of an orchard refers to
fixing the position of trees in an
orchard when planning a plantation. It
is very important because it gives you
easy operations like inter-cropping,
cultivation, irrigation, and spraying.
1. Square system
It is simplest and easiest system
with the same distance
measurement.
The plants are planted exactly at
right angle at each corner.
2. Rectangular
system
The plot is divided into
rectangles and trees are
planted at the four corners of
the rectangle in straight rows
running at right angles. This
system accommodates more
plants in rows.
3. Equilateral
Triangular/
Hexagonal system—
In this system, the plants are
planted at the corner of
equilateral triangle. This is very
intense system of planting and
hence requires fertile land. Six
trees are planted making a
hexagon
4. Triangular
system
In this system, triangular is
similar to the square
system; the only difference
is that the trees in the
alternate rows are planted
in the middle of the corners
of the square.
5.
Diagonal/Quincunx
system
It is also known as filler or
diagonal system. As a result,
the tree number in a unit area
becomes almost double the
number in the square system.
to the grower in the early life
of the orchard
6. Contour system
Itis generally followed
on the hills with high
slopes. The contour
system helps prevent or
reduce erosion and
conserve moisture.