Holistic Core Values

Edited by Michael Phillips

Philosophical approval of one's farming practices is indeed a tough nut to crack! What follows is absolutely a work-in-progress: Holistic growers, let your thoughts be known! We have no intention of launching yet another certification process here. On the other hand, giving orchardists a nudge to embrace radiant system health that results in the growing of nutrient-dense fruit on the local level is an honorable achievement. Orchard challenges are many - the work overwhelming at times. What follows are positive guidelines to keep us on track in managing orchards based on minimal off-farm inputs, living soil practices, and integrated ecosystem health.

Bringing Orchard Health to the Fore

• The nutrition and vital health constituents provided within the fruit we grow nourishes families in our communities. Do not short change the nutrient density of fruit by using soluble chemical fertilizers. Invest in rock powders where mineral needs come up short.
• Aged compost, ramial wood chips, and unpasteurized liquid fish sprays abet mycorrhizal fungi. These tree allies in turn assist the tree to be healthy. Holistic orchardists think about fungi.
• Herbal medicine at its finest is really about deep nutrition. Fermented teas of horsetail, nettle, and comfrey are local brews with offer wide-ranging constituent bioavailability to both foliage and fruit. Kelp from the sea serves as a tree megavitamin in every spray tank. A homemade garlic extract works in synthesis with other spray materials. These are good things to provide our trees.
• Orchard sprays that build health include unadulterated neem oil. Study up on this ancient Ayurvedic herb. Do trials. Realize the many purposes it serves in building health and assisting the tree to ward off disease as well as quell pest dynamics. Support a fair trade source of neem. Ponder bioregional alternatives to whole neem's ability to stimulate the immune response in the tree.
• Understand the timing of orchard tasks relative to tree growth cycles and what holistic orchardists refer to as the Fungal Curve.
• Abetting diversity in the orchard ecosystem is a must. Manage the fallows to encourage tap-rooted plants, plant comfrey as 'living mulch' under full-size trees, cover crop strips of flowering plants like buckwheat and red clover for beneficials. Herbicides are not a part of abetting diversity.
• Practice biological mowing as opposed to all-out grass warfare. Keep ongoing bloom in mind to support the bumbles!

Pest and Disease Management

• Good sanitation practice limits fungal pathogen sources as well as soil-pupating insect pest populations.
• Spray applications are generally essential for commercial orchardists. The OMRI List is one tool to gauge acceptable organic options. We share a goal to minimize off-farm inputs: wise discernment as how best to optimize a spray application is part of that process. Use monitoring traps, trap trees, feeding attractants (when appropriate), and ultraviolet inhibitors like fish oil to protect biological spray materials. Use kaolin clay to advantage to also help lessen sun degradation of sulfur. Think through tank mixes to limit the number of tractor passes through the orchard.
• Fungicide use should be intelligently minimized. Keeping disease in check is very important but so is supporting the microorganism community in both the soil and the tree. Equally telling, far fewer fungicides (of any sort) allow higher levels of medicinal constituents in the fruit that are vital to human health.
• We encourage every grower to forego the use of all chemicals. That said, we recognize orchard dynamics at any one site differ considerably. If limited use of a certain chemical in the short term makes it possible for you to sustain a community orchard effort, LOCAL takes credence over ORGANIC. But . . . please try your darndest to explore less allopathic options, give such methods a legitimate trial, and recognize that 'breaking the habit' some years may indeed be plausible. Growers with a listing as a Community Orchard on this site deal with specific orcharding challenges in numerous ways. We are people who emphasize Health in our farming practices in order to bring our friends and neighbors Healthy Fruit. (Apple lovers -- please read more on this below.)