I have an orchard of approximately 200 apple trees on my land. Until this year they were tended by my neighbor. I have taken them back and, because I intend to use the apples for cider, rather than for the commodity market, I do not need to follow the same regimen of spraying that my neighbor followed. (He simply piggy-backed my little orchard onto his own large one for the purposes of pesticide and other spraying.) Additionally, I don't have or want the Federal License to spray what he sprayed on my trees.So the question is, does anybody out there organically or non-chemically tend their orchards? I would love to learn how. Thanks, Dan Fagan

-- Daniel R. Fagan (fagandr@juno.com), April 03, 2000

Answers

I just did a web search for integrated pest management orchards and turned up lots of information. Now integrated pest management typicallly means using minimal sprays along with other control measures, but you can decide for yourself what will work for you.

Curious, have you figured how long it will take you to pick the apples from all of those trees? I thought about putting in an orchard for roadside stand sales, until I figured up how long it would take for picking doing it full time, and I hadn't planned on anywhere near that many trees.

-- greenbeanman (greenbeanman@ourtownusa.net), April 03, 2000.

Dan,

My advice to you is to contact Guy Ames at ATTRA (Appropriate Technology Transfer to Rural AReas, or something like that). They have a web site but the best way to contact them is toll free 1-800- 346-9140 and ask for Guy. He has had a nearly organic orchard for years (they do spray some but a minimum) and grown trees in the Ozarks (if he can make it work there you can anyplace). Guy will offer advice and send you some really good reading materials. He's a heck of a nice guy and a wealth of information. ATTRA is housed at the University of Arkansas and promotes sustainable agriculture. They give free advice to anyone who calls.

Good Luck and I hope your apple venture works out. Your one big disadvantage (as I see it) is having lots of other apples nearby that are being sprayed heavily. Where are you farming at? We have a very small orchard at our homestead that we just put in. We even got some of our trees from Guy's own nursery.

Kim

-- kim (fleece@eritter.net), April 03, 2000.

Dan,

Wow, 200 trees! I have a hard time keeping up with my 12 apple and 1 pear trees. Your extension agent may be some help, there is a lot of info out about various IPM techniques and since you won't be selling whole fruit, apples with blemishes won't be as great a concern. I believe the FDA started requiring all cider to be either pasteurized or otherwise treated or sold with a warning label stating the dangers of drinking untreated cider - I remember one of our local growers complaining about it last year.

Try Gardens Alive for an eco-oil product, 1-812-537-8650. Spraying and keeping good culture on two hundred trees should keep you busy. Just pruning the trees I have is always a challenge. The more I think about it the harder it sounds. Do you already have the equipment and help? Good luck,

Bob

-- Robert (STBARB@usa.net), April 03, 2000.

Dan,

There is a lot of good advice stated here. Yes, 200 trees should keep you very busy. I have 26 apple, peach, pear and plum trees. The pruning, care and thinning will keep one busy. Not to mention everything else. Gardens Alive does have a good three spray program recommended in their catalog, which says will provide 75%-80% good usable fruit. I am doing it this year.

-- Derrick Comfort (dcomfort@ccnmail.com), April 09, 2000.

I hadn't realised that apples were supposed to be that complicated. I have been working entirely without spray to renovate a neglected small orchard. The folks that we bought the place from had never done anything more than watch the trees and hope. Of course, the fruit wasn't worth picking, and the pruning!(shudder) We fenced in the entire orchard last year, and ran our poultry there. In one year, the apples were almost entirely bug free, and I wound up buying a cider press to deal with the onslaught of fruit. Of course, I haven't had any problems other than the bugs, and I'm hoping to keep it that way, but one never knows.

-- Connie (connie@lunehaven.com), April 10, 2000.