North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Claude Jolicoeur <cjoli@gmc.ulaval.ca>]

A 22:56 03.11.04 -0800, vous avez écrit : 
>>>>
> -why would i NOT want a standard?  why would i WANT a  standard?
           to my understanding they are larger and live longer but harder to 


Maybe you could consider planting some standards AND some dwarfs/semi-dwarfs.

I think John's comments on standards were right on. I myself have the pleasure of having standard trees that were planted before I was born. They might not be the most productive trees, but they have many other qualities - one them being the pleasure me and my children have climbing them. I've always wanted to write an article in Pomona that would be entitled "In Praise of Older Standard Apple Trees", but I've never had the time to get at it.

Dwarfs and semis, on the other hand, are very useful to get some production faster. Maybe you don't want to wait 8 - 10 years before you start harvesting some useful crop.

Personnally, if I had to start an orchard from scratch, I would split the acreage about equally between a standard section and a dwarf section, and I would make sure each variety I select be present in each section. And if I had sheeps, I guess I would only let them go in the standard orchard.

As of the book "Ecological fruit production in the North", it has a long story... The original was written in French by Céline Caron and Jean Richard: "Guide pratique de production - Fruits et petits fruits - Agriculture écologique", published in 1981 in 3000 copies and reprinted the following year in 5500 copies. Then this work was adapted and translated in English by Bart Hall-Beyer and Jean Richard in 1983 under the above mentioned title in 5000 copies. Following that, in 1987, Jean Richard re-adapted the English book into a new French edition: "Fruits et petits fruits - Agriculture écologique". And finally, a new French edition was published in 1997 with revisions by Guy Langlais under the title "Arbres et arbustes fruitiers". I think this is an excellent book - I have a copy of each of the 4 editions!!! If John Bunker can't find a copy for you in Fedco's basement, you could also try with Bill MacKently - St-Lawrence nursery, maybe he could find a copy. The last alternative would be to try with used books on Internet.

By the way, another book that would be useful for you is the Apple Grower by Michael Phillips.

Good luck...
Claude, Quebec.