PEACH TREE SHORT LIFE NOT INFLUENCED BY PREPLANT HYDRATED LIME TREATMENTS
in HortScience`Redhaven' peach trees were planted on a nonfumigated peach tree short life (PTSL) site in Pontiac, S.C. The experimental design was a split plot with 12 replicates. Preplant subplot treatments were 0, 3, and 6 kg of hydrated lime mixed with 1.9 cubic meters of native soil (Lakeland sand) per planting hole. Main plot treatments consisted of mixing in the planting holes 0 or 5 liters of soil taken from a nearby orchard site that had shown “suppressive” tendencies towards ring nematode reproduction. Hydrated lime treatments increased soil pH by 0.6 to 1.4 units. Boron deficiency occurred in the 6-kg plots. Hydrated lime did not significantly reduce PTSL as 88%, 79%, and 92% of the trees in the 0-, 3-, and 6-kg plots, respectively, died from PTSL by the fifth year. No differences in survival were found between the nonsuppressive and suppressive soil treatments, as both had 86% tree death from PTSL. No trends in ring nematode populations were found among treatments.
