North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[<dmnorton@royaloakfarmorchard.com>]

Lisa,

 

We do mow our orchard on a regular basis with our flail mowers.  We keep our lower scaffolds approximately 2 to 3' above the orchard floor and use a Weed Badger to keep our tree rows weed free.  We use Roundup only on about 6 to 8 inches of the tree row that the weed badger may miss.  The Weed Badger has decreases our Roundup usage by over 85% and we received a sustainable agriculture grant from the University of Illinois for our "Weed Badger" program.  For more on a Weed Badger visit http://www.weedbadger.com/.

 

Dennis Norton
Royal Oak Farm Orchard
Office (815) 648-4467
Mobile (815) 228-2174
http://www.royaloakfarmorchard.com
http://www.theorchardkeeper.blogspot.com
http://www.revivalhymn.com

----- Original Message -----

From: Lisa D. Ishimuro

To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org

Sent: Friday, August 22, 2008 7:57 AM

Subject: [NAFEX] mowing orchards

Could we get more of a discussion on mowing of orchards? I would like to know how other members mow around their trees and what height the lower limbs are?  Do many of you use roundup under the trees?

BTW, my peach trees were absolutely prolific this year, and this was the year I did MINIMAL spraying (one dormant oil in early March and one after petal fall). The reason was that my mother passed away in early April and I had more important things to attend to. I had asked the list if I should start spraying in early summer, and a poster said yes, but I really wasn't able to.   So, now I have the best peach crop ever......they are practically blemish free. I have 4 trees, gave bags and bags away, canned 24 jars, and more to do this weekend.   The apples are another story.  But Stanley plum is loaded too.

 Also the ground hog count is up to 13!!!!!!  I think that is it for now.

Lisa Ishimuro
Environmental Protection Specialist II
Bucks County Conservation District
1456 Ferry Road
Doylestown, Pa. 18901
215-345-7577 Ext. 102

lishimuro@yahoo.com

www.bucksccd.org