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Apples and tree fruits are the most difficult items to grow organically in Ohio. The humidity creates a perfect environment for molds and fungi to set in.
Our growers use the least treatment possible, often utilizing what's called "Integrated Pest Management." This means there is a scout program where they monitor for critical limits of pests or disease. When a limit is hit, they react before losing the crop.
We hear all the time from customers asking for organic apples. Unfortunately, for an established orchard it would be near business suicide. Very very risky.
But Isaac wasn't an established orchard man. 2 years ago he bought Sunny Slope Orchards in Navarre, Ohio. This small orchard has a roadside stand and Isaac, living literally in the block of apple trees, was very interested in organic apples for the health and safety of his family.
To understand growing apples organically, you have to understand the full season of managing an orchard. I'll try to simplify it here. Summary is - this year Isaac experimented with 2 acres of older trees - varieties less valuable like Early Gold - to try an organic program. He also planted a new block of disease resistant newer varieties for the future.
The base of the organic program is nutrition and dairy whey. Yes, oddly enough, a bi-product from our milk and cheese processing has proven valuable in keeping the fungi away. Isaac had heard somewhere that dairy whey - high in protein and therefore nitrogen - was a good spray for organic orchards. In partnership with Paint Valley Farms that processes our Guernsey milk, they were able to get 300 gal totes of whey every other week. This whey was blended with nutrition - trace minerals, molasses, and fertilizer - and sprayed on the apple trees as a fungicide.
Isaac also learned about where to feed. In a traditional orchard, weeds around the bottom of the trees are a big challenge. Most orchards spray a herbicide to keep the base of the trees clean. Isaac wanted to see what a history of this had done to the roots, so he dug them up. What he found was that the trees lacked fine "hairy like" roots near the base. Instead, most of the roots were found 6 to 8 feet out into the rows. So he decided to mulch under the trees with wood chips and fertilize in the rows. This unconventional thinking also saved him time in his fertilizer applications as he was able to broadcast granular nutrients into the rows.
At bloom, he needed to thin out. Apple trees start in stages. "Greentip" is when the leaves start to emerge. This is when Isaac started his program of whey. Then comes bloom. Each blossom could be an apple. The goal is to abort some of the blossoms to reduce the apple load on the tree. The remaining apples get more nutrition and size. To do this, you can either do it mechanically (pick off blossoms) or chemically. Isaac discovered that a poorly timed scab treatment of lime (calcium) and sulfur also accidentally thinned the trees for him.
To keep the pests away, he used organic pesticides. Working with local produce growers, he was able to try a few tools for fighting worms in the apples. Madex, an insecticidal virus that controls moths, was followed with a treatment of Surround (clay) and Venerate (bio-insecticide for beetles, aphids, leaf hoppers and more.
These apples aren't perfect. They look like a homegrown organic apple. They have a little bit of scab and russeting - both scars from disease pressure. And like all early season apples, the early gold is best for sauce or baking. Sunny days and cold nights help apples develop sugars. That's why the best apples - like Goldrush - come after frost.
Will you ever see this application locally on honeycrisp or more desirable apples? Likely not. Those apples are prone to many diseases and are too valuable to sacrifice. To get there, the consumer will need to change their perception of what is a perfect looking fruit.
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