Market Farming

[suzyr AT netos.com (Suzy Roth)]

> I will be planting other fruit - strawberries, blackberries, blueberries,
but not in the "orchard".

I wouldn't dismiss planting a variety of crops around your fruit 
trees. On my trip to Italy last fall I was struck by the mix of crops 
in the Italian countryside. Grapes and olive trees grew in rows side 
by side with the family garden growing down the middle of a few wide 
rows. While the language barrier kept me from quizzing the local 
farmer, what I saw being practiced seemed extremely logical and 
similar to what's being preached in permaculture and organic farming 
pubs. I think they called it fooling the pests! I currently don't 
practice this method but plan on setting up my orchard/berries/grapes 
in a similar way.

Another observation were the orchards around Bologne, Italy. Their 
fruit trees are espaliered in rows. While this seems like a lot of 
work at first, an orchardist near me in WA state has been hit with 
apple maggot fly and he said that if he could have coated both sides 
of his fruit with soap spray, he wouldn't have gotten as much maggot 
damage which seemed to occur on the side of the apple facing the 
interior of the tree. He believes the extensive espaliering I saw in 
Italy was their way of being able to spray both sides of the apple.

Suzy Roth
Thistle Ridge Farm & Gardens
Issaquah, WA