The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1920-04-22
SOIL NEEDS TOLD
BY @. A. c. EXPERTS

Oregon fruit growers interested in
maintaining the fertility of their orch.
ard soils as an essential TO continuous
fruit production may now learn some
of the most important results of fer
tility experiments that have engaged
the attention of the experiment station
at the agricultural college and the two
branch stations at Hood River and
| Talent. These findings are embodied
in new station bulletin, Fertilizers
| for Oregon Orchards, written by G. l..
| Lewis, former chief Of horticulture at
the college. DR.. +. G. Reimer and Cor
don G. Brown.
The disadvantage of delaying the
fertility provisions till the penalty falls
is indicated in the report as follows:
IN orchard surveys made in two
fruit districts in 1908 and 1909, attention
was called by the writer to the need
| for growers to supply their soil with
more organic matter and keep up the
supply of nitrogen Little attention
was paid to the advice. few of the
growers taking steps to keep the soils
| from Becoming depleted, and as re-
| suit the orchards gradually detefior-
ated.
by 1912 crisis arose. Low prices
ruled in the market and. coupled with
| the low prices. many of the orchards
were poducing small yields of fruit,
often of very poor quality. Many If
| the trees were making feeble growth.
The leaves were thin and yellow. The
| bloom was poor and there was q very
small percentage of set. Much of the
fruit was pitted with so-called fruit
pit, or bitter pit, sometimes called core
rot. The apples tended to be small
smooth and dull colored, and the trees
were being attacked by various func-
tional troubles, such as little leaf, ap-
Pile rosette and die back, sometimes
called winter kill.
'"The stations then took up the fer
tility questions in a large way, both
with mixed fertilizers and nitrates. In
general most results from mixed fer
tilizers showed negative, while on any
soils with certain classes of fruits the
nitrates gave excellent results.
Choose very typical area of the
orchard. have at least dozen trees for
each plot choose high grade, quickly
available salts and apply them at least
a month before the trees bloom vary
the amount from to 10 pounds per
tree, accrodngio the size of the trees.
For Ordinary bearing apple trees five
pounds should be sufficient, but for ex-
tremely large trees as much as 10
pounds might be desirable.
"Plot Five to 10 pounds Of nitrate
of soda or sulfate of ammonia
"plot 2-Five to 10 pounds of sulfate
of potash.
"Plot g. Five to 10 pounds of super
phosphate.
"plot 4-Five to 10 pounds each Of
nitrate of soda and sulfate of potash.
"Plot 5-Five to 10 pounds each of
of nitrate soda and superphosphate.
"Plot Give to 10 pounds each of
nitrate of soda superphosphate and
potash.
'Plot From one to two tons Of
ground limestone to the acre.
''lf response comes from any Of
these combinations, one will know
what to buy to put on his orchard, and
if he desires he can put on available
salts more slowly.
1T is particularly important that
the nitrate be spread about the tree
before it blooms. sand that the salts are
early dissolved if response is expected
the first year.