Good Fruit Grower

May 1

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When compared with IFP a certification system aimed , at verifying sustainable production practices, organic production involves higher costs for insect and disease control—31 percent more, Peck said, because growers need to make two to three times as many applications of materials that are less effective and wash off easily. Their cost for fertilizers is 47 percent more and for fruit thinning, 22 percent more. Barriers to overcome Some of the barriers organic growers face include crop-load management, where the blossom thinners lime sulfur and oil are phytotoxic, hand thinning is expensive, and there is a penalty for small fruit size if they don't thin enough. Organically approved herbicides tend to be only minimally effective at controlling the grasses and perennials that can grow under orchard trees, so growers rely on mulching, mowing, and cultivation to reduce competition for water and nutrients. Organic consumers are not more tolerant of blemishes, Peck said, so it is hard for eastern growers to compete with regions that have more favorable climates and can produce larger organic fruit free of blemishes, russet, and superficial insect and disease damage. Organic growers rely on sulfur and liquid lime sulfur, and sometimes copper, for disease control, and apple scab is a scourge in humid climates. Organic growers can choose to grow disease-resistant cultivars, but face marketing barriers with cultivar identification in the mainstream marketplace. Additionally, scab resistance based on the Vf gene has been overcome by the fungus that causes apple scab, Peck said. The potential delisting of antibiotics for fireblight control by the National Organics Standards Board would further complicate the management of organic apples in the East. While it may have been easier to grow organic apples in the East if Easterners had written the rules, that choice isn't available, Peck said. Many Eastern growers would like to farm under an IFP management scheme, but Integrated Fruit Production doesn't have the cachet of organic. "There are a few successful IFP marketing programs here and abroad that have been able to capture a premium," he said. Needs for success To be successful at growing organic apples, eastern growers need "a system developed from the ground up," Peck said, and outlined what it would need to include: • An efficient orchard design with trees that allow good spray penetration and are small enough to allow for greater handwork • Disease-resistant rootstocks with high nitrogen and water use efficiency • Disease-resistant cultivars and careful management of the Vf gene by spraying sulfur and/or lime sulfur during the primary scab infection period—even on resistant cultivars • Crop-load management with lime sulfur and oil and mechanical thinning machines • Mechanical weed control • Disease control based on lime sulfur, sulfur, copper, streptomycin, and possibly some of the newer biocontrols • Insect management based on pheromone mating disruption, kaolin clay, Bt, granulosis virus, and spinosad—and, to a lesser extent, pyrethrums and neem oil • Appropriate expectations from wholesale buyers and consumers, who would ideally be willing to tolerate some russet and some disease and insect damage. "It would be helpful if they would accept the many high quality scab-resistant varieties that are available, but they like Gala and Fuji as much as conventional consumers," Peck said. • High price premiums to compensate for higher production costs and lower yields • www.goodfruit.com GOOD FRUIT GROWER May 1, 2013 17

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