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Subject: North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio
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- From: <dmnorton@royaloakfarmorchard.com>
- To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
- Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Organic vs Senisble
- Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2008 18:45:40 -0500
When Royal Oak Farm began in 1992, we were 100%
organic. At the time we had around 1,000 trees. In 1994 we were
told that we would have to wait 7 years before we could be certified.
Why? We had used treated posts on our trellis. By that time we had
5,000 trees and were losing half our crop to CM and PC. If you factor in
the cost of replacing the entire trellis, waiting the 7 years and then trying to
get certified, and the loss of fruit from being organic, you can see why we
abandoned growing organically. Scale is the deciding factor. Instead
we opted for IPM. And we have planted 7,000 more trees
since. Now we are part of the EcoApple program with the state of
Wisconsin and the growers of the Northeast even though we are in
Illinois. The IPM specialist we contracted in 1997 runs that
program for Wisconsin and included us in the program last year. What that
means for us is that we are practicing sustainable agriculture and using the Eco
Apple Protocol in our spray program, but not accepting any services being
provided by the program. The IPM specialist pays us a visit or two each
season and we pay him for his time without it coming out of the EcoApple
budget. The Protocol uses the most environmentally friendly products
that is possible. And our spray program budget, which is around $18,000
per season has actually decreased by $2,000. So, I am finding that the use
of sustainable agriculture can actually be very cost effective instead of
increasing costs as organic growing does. If anyone is interested in a
copy of the protocol, I'll be happy to e-mail you a copy. Better yet, I'll
post it to the server and e-mail the link to download it.
Dennis Norton
Royal Oak Farm Orchard http://www.royaloakfarmorchard.com http://www.theorchardkeeper.blogspot.com http://www.revivalhymn.com
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-
[NAFEX] Organic vs Senisble,
halegp, 04/14/2008
-
Re: [NAFEX] Organic vs Senisble,
Hélène Dessureault, 04/15/2008
-
Re: [NAFEX] Organic vs Senisble,
dmnorton, 04/15/2008
-
Re: [NAFEX] Organic vs Senisble,
Donna &/or Kieran, 04/18/2008
-
Re: [NAFEX] Organic vs Senisble,
Ginda Fisher, 04/18/2008
-
Re: [NAFEX] Organic vs Senisble,
Karen Tillou, 04/18/2008
- Re: [NAFEX] Organic vs Senisble, dmnorton, 04/19/2008
-
Re: [NAFEX] Organic vs Senisble,
Karen Tillou, 04/18/2008
-
Re: [NAFEX] Organic vs Senisble,
Ginda Fisher, 04/18/2008
-
Re: [NAFEX] Organic vs Senisble,
Donna &/or Kieran, 04/18/2008
-
Re: [NAFEX] Organic vs Senisble,
dmnorton, 04/15/2008
- Re: [NAFEX] Organic vs Senisble, Stephen Sadler, 04/15/2008
- Re: [NAFEX] Organic vs Senisble, mangodance, 04/16/2008
-
Re: [NAFEX] Organic vs Senisble,
Hélène Dessureault, 04/15/2008
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