Michael Phillips - The Apple Grower: A Guide for the Organic Orchardist

THE
Apple Grower

A Guide for the
Organic Orchardist

MICHAEL PHILLIPS

REVISED AND EXPANDED EDITION

CHELSEA GREEN PUBLISHING COMPANY
WHITE RIVER JUNCTION, VERMONT

To my grandfather Arthur Llewellyn Phillips,
Who had a community market orchard before I was born.

To my dad, Robert Arthur Phillips,
I so wish you could still be here to help pick the apples.

And lastly, to an Inspiration, Ron Prokopy,
Who helped teach apple growers how to think about bugs.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE
Growing Apples Locally

CHAPTER TWO
The Orchard Site and Its Climate

CHAPTER THREE
The Enriching of Fruit Lands

CHAPTER FOUR
The Trees and the Planting

CHAPTER FIVE
Care of the Orchard

CHAPTER SIX
Apple Pests and Diseases

CHAPTER SEVEN
Spraying for Balance

CHAPTER EIGHT
Reaping the Harvest

CHAPTER NINE
Marketing in the Local Economy

CHAPTER TEN
The Last Organic Frontier

A book like this belongs to all who love to grow fruit. More have added their bit than I can begin to recount or even suspect. Still, a few deserve a special personal mention. My fruit-growing horizon has been broadened considerably by these grower friends, apple gurus, and assorted odd fellows. And no, Im not saying whos who!

No doubt Ive bothered more than my share of reasoned academics who took time to answer incessant questions. Believe me, I know your attention to detail and open-mindedness is invaluable. Thanks to Art Agnello, Alan Eaton, Turner Sutton, Jim Cummins, Terrence Robinson, Jim Schupp, Mike Glenn, Gary Putreka, Tracy Leskey, Starker Wright, Wes Autio, Ron Prokopy, Bill MacHardy, Dave Rosenberger, Dave Gadoury, Wolfram Koehler, Mark Longstroth, Alan Jones, Glen Koehler, Jim Travis, Dave Eissenstat, Charles Vincent, Tim Smith, Bob Stebbins, Alan Biggs, and Keith Yoder.

Any apple grower can only be inspired by the networking that occurs among members of the North American Fruit Explorers (NAFEX). Ed Fackler, you are in a class all your own. Tom Burford, you are the consummate apple diplomat and a man with whom I will drink a glass of righteous cider on any occasion. Bernie Nikolai and Claude Jolicoeur brave temperatures colder than even those here in Lost Nation. Vicki Caron, Ken Parr, Lon Rombough, Roger Swain, and all the rest of you are friends for life.

One fellow down in Arkansas taught me how to be a little less strident: Guy Ames, you may not dabble in apples as much anymore, but everyone should check out your foot-stomping music. An orchard consultant in Michigan opened my eyes to broader horizons: Doug Murray, your inkling that any organic spray option should abet the trees innate health rings loud and clear. A man beholden to good dirt, Paul Sachs of North Country Organics, has diligently answered every letter and phone query about the life-giving soil. A doctor and apple grower in Old Hampshire, England, addressed my need to savor the medicinal apple and poetic description: Stephen Hayes, someday we will meet on hallowed ground.

More than a few herbal buddies helped me bring holistic concepts to the fore. Green blessings go to Matthias and Andrea Reisen, Ryan Drum, Stephen Buhner, Doug Elliot, and Rosemary Gladstar in particular. Other folks who contributed key understandings along the way include Usha Rao, Don Chapman, Emily Brown Rosen, Eric Sideman, Jerry Brunetti, and Sally Fallon.

My many friends actively growing apples for their respective communities inspire me daily. I would only come up short trying to describe the passion and commitment you each bring to your trees and this good land. Thanks go to Brian Caldwell, Hugh Williams, Allan Suprenant, John Bunker, John Bemis, Donnie MacLean, Ike Kerschner, Bill MacKentley, Bob Sewall, Mark Fulford, Brien Davis, Lou and Merby Lego, Wynne Weinreb, Scott Beaton, Dan Kelly, Steve Page, Cynthia Anthony, Don Jantzi, Bruce Holland-Moritz, Chuck Souther, Steve Wood, Rick Leadbeater, Charlotte Shelton, Gord Hawkes, Steve Ela, Jim Koan, Jim Bittner, and Jim Gallot. We are brothers and sisters under the one orchard sun.

This book is an enthusiastic probing of what we comprehend about our orchards. I deeply appreciate Chelsea Greens willingness to push the marketing margins with a detailed fruit growers manual meant to embrace all. The sustainable path is the only one for an intelligent human being to take in these tenuous times. My own editorial path has been enriched by Jim Schley, Ben Watson, Marcy Brant, and John Barstow in making this a book that gets that message clearly across. (Or should that be across clearly?)

Perhaps its too easy to take the support thats lovingly given every day by ones family for granted. Gene and Nonie, and especially me own mom, have certainly kept this guy held up to the light. My brother Alan knows how to bring a chuckle into the midst of a hectic deadline. Gracie, I deemed you a joyful little booper when this book first began to take shape ten years ago. Now you are a young lass embracing life with a gladness of heart and all the love a daddy could ever ask. Lets read good books together under the apple tree forever, okay? Lastly, love to my Nancy for making this life and homestead so wonderful. I promise you that the snarling in the writers den has now come to an end.

Apples and other tree fruit have been grown organically for many centuries. Conventional chemical methods, by contrast, have been used only for the past hundred years or so. Yet most orchard consultants today will tell you its impossible to grow fruit organically. The paradox lies in the economy of these times, not in the orchard itself. In fact, a handful of apple growers across North America are successfully producing beautiful organic fruit, employing both the intuitive practices of our great-grandparents and the scientific discoveries of todays integrated pest management research. Apples like thesenaturally grown and healthy, full of flavor and nutritioncan be produced only on the small farms and in the backyards of people who are intimately involved with their trees.