Orchard-Floor Management for Fruit Trees

Author(s):	Teryl R. Roper

The high cost of establishing an orchard necessitates cropping the trees early and harvesting the maximum amount of quality fruit that the tree will support. The orchard-floor management system can greatly affect earliness of bearing and yield.

Decisions about how the orchard floor will be managed should be made BEFORE an orchard is planted and then executed in a timely manner during the lifetime of the orchard. This bulletin indicates some of the factors to consider before making decisions about the orchard floor and suggests ways to improve orchard-floor management.