Grower Paul Muradian has nearly ten years of experience with tight tree spacing and multiple leader orchard systems in peach and nectarine orchards. But though they are very productive and pedestrian-friendly, he worries about the economics and labor needed to establish and to sustain such high-management systems. Muradian farms about 200 acres of fresh-market peaches and cling peaches for processing, as well as plums, Pluots, nectarines, and grapes with his brother in Kingsburg, California. He has some of the earliest nectarines in the San Joaquin Valley, which he attributes to a combination of site and variety selection. Several blocks of […]