A young apple or stone-fruit tree planted where an old one of its kind stood tends to sulk
A young apple or stone-fruit tree planted where an old one of its kind stood tends to sulk (stunted, uneven, sometimes dying back), because the ground an orchard tree leaves behind is not neutral for the next tree of the same kind.
A good hunch A person has checked it against its sources. If you skip this, it still grows, just less well. The planner suggests it.
How it works
Apple leaves behind a soil complex of fungi and oomycetes (Rhizoctonia, Ilyonectria, Phytophthora, Pythium) together with the lesion nematode Pratylenchus penetrans; the stone fruits leave the genus-wide version, Prunus replant disease, and in peach the ring nematode with the bacterial- canker organism drives its severe named form, Peach Tree Short Life. Either way a young tree of the same kind meets that loaded soil with a root system too small to outgrow it.
What to do about it
On old orchard ground, don't drop a new tree of the same kind into the same spot. Have the soil tested for nematodes first; choose a replant-tolerant rootstock where one exists (a Geneva-series apple, a 'Guardian' peach); set the tree in the old grassed row-middles, away from the old tree row; or replace the soil in the planting hole. Waiting alone is not treated as a cure. Many other crops host the same organisms, so a rotation is at best partial and never a guarantee.
The evidence
Evidence: checked against 5 sources in the research-based literature.
The 5 sources
In Washington State, the disease is caused by multiple species within several genera of fungi: Rhizoctonia, Ilyonectria; oomycetes: Phytophthora, Pythium and in some sites lesion nematode Pratylenchus penetrans
Rootstocks are also chosen for insect and disease resistance, such as to fire blight, and tolerance to replant disease.
Take soil samples for pH fertility and nematode analysis
Successive orchard plantings of almond and other Prunus species exhibit reduced growth and yield in many California soils. This phenomenon, known as Prunus replant disease (PRD), can be prevented by preplant soil fumigation or anaerobic soil disinfestation, but its etiology is poorly understood
Plants it applies to · 6
How this rule has changed
Every change is dated, newest first. The full record, with each reason, is in the data download.
- Wording made clearer
- A person read the sources and confirmed it
- Added to the rules
Something wrong in the garden? ›
More ways Milpa can help
When do I plant? · What grows well together? · Plan my garden · What can I plant now? · Something wrong in the garden? · Keep a garden diary · Heard a tip?
Cite this page
Milpa Gardens. “A young apple or stone-fruit tree planted where an old one of its kind stood tends to sulk (stunted, uneven, sometimes dying back), because the ground an orchard tree leaves behind is not neutral for the next tree of the same kind.” Evidence grade: A good hunch. https://milpa.garden/rules/young-apple-stone-fruit-tree-planted-where/
A garden planner built on graded evidence. Every claim states its evidence grade and links its sources on the page. Cite it with the grade, and add the date you read it.
Report a problem with this claim
How we grade evidence
- Well established
- The rule names its mechanism and is settled, by sources a person has read and checked or by plain arithmetic and geometry.
- Promising
- The mechanism is named and the literature backs it. A few questions are still open.
- A good hunch
- Plausible by its mechanism, but field studies are thin, so treat it as a lean.
- Contested
- The evidence points both ways, or no study has tested it, so the planner does not enforce it.
- Refuted
- The claim did not survive its sources. It is kept so the folklore can be answered.