On-site walkthrough by Sam Omeg at Siomeg/Omeg Orchards contrasting two adjacent Regina cherry blocks: one severely damaged by a November freeze and managed under the orchard's standard program, and an AEA trial block showing no freeze damage. The AEA-managed block received compost, mulch, soil stimulant sprays (including Rejuvenate Seashield), OP8 after herbicide damage, a full AEA foliar program and fertigation; it is producing significantly more vigor and an estimated 10–14 ton crop potential. The speaker notes this is the third year working with AEA locally and the second year of the full AEA (soil+fertigation+foliar) program.
Questions this video answers
In November (year not specified).
Approximately 10 to 14 tons.
Rejuvenate Seashield and OP8 (plus unspecified compost, mulch, and other soil stimulant sprays).
This is the third year working with AEA locally, and the second year of the full AEA program (soil, fertigation, foliar).
Chapters
Foreign. At the Siomeg orchard here. And this is a block of Regina that you can see all around us here that was severely damaged by the freeze that occurred in November. This block that we're in here that was damaged has been managed under our standard program that we follow here at Omeg Orchards. We're looking across a draw over at the other side there and on that ridge below the pine trees to the left and behind those pine trees going up over as far as you can see, that's our AEA trial block. And at that block we follow a full AEA program for our ground management, our fertigation and our foliar sprays. And that block has no damage. This block we had to restart these trees over again. So we'll go there next. So we went from no crop at Siomeg Orchard for the next three years where we were at, we'll be growing tree, we'll be regrowing all that canopy and now we come down to this orchard and we have the potential for a 10 to 14 ton crop. Just through nutritional differences, as best you can guess for the seasonal stress that you went through. Yeah, I would guess that nutritional land, I don't need to guess. I can say the only difference between this orchard and that orchard, it's the same soil type, same slope, same elevation, same age tree, same variety, is the management that we're doing here, the AEA management. The other thing I want to point out is, and this is a sign of a lot of vigor, see all the shoot extension we see here? So we have all. We have shoots growing along this branch that's considered an excellent indicator of the vigor and strength in the tree, the energy level of the tree. And where we see this, then there'll be fruit at the base of these shoots and those cherries will be really big, really desirable. Cherries that are fruited on the base of one year old wood are considered really advantageous. A couple of the highlights of what we've done here as far as soil management. We've applied compost and mulch to the ground here, we've applied a variety of soil stimulant sprays, including Rejuvenate Seashield. And then there was residual herbicide damage here affecting the trees or damaging the trees rather. So we applied OP8 and a couple of other products to the soil here. Then these trees received the full AEA foliar program and a fertigation program as well. Since what this is the. This will be the third year, this will be the second year of the full program. The first year. This is the third year of us working with AEA here. The first year, we just did an AEA foliar program. The second year, we adopted the full AEA program, which was soil fertigation and foliar. And now this is the second. This will be the second year of us doing a full AEA program. So this is after one year of the full AEA program. And I should also note that we were going to remove this block. We were going to take this block out. It was so bad when we started with AEA here. And so this block started significantly behind the block we were just at, but yet it's doing really, really good. This was the size of the leaves during the growing season here at this orchard. That's how badly in decline it was. Yeah, that's how bad it. Sam.
