Using Whey for Orchard Health and Disease Management

Hello everyone - Happy New Year! This winter I am working on focusing much more on orchard and tree health in my apple orchard. I have been fortunate enough over the last year to have a consistent weekly supply of whey from a local cheese producer here in Minnesota. To date, we have been using the whey only as extra pig feed for our small pig herd - which is great and all but we would like to do more with it. How is everyone else using whey in their orchard? Foliar sprays, ground sprays, fermentation, etc? What schedules are you using whey in the orchard? I currently do not have fire blight - but I know there is some research going on with this subject. My one big concern is about salts in the whey - I will likely not be testing it for salt content because each batch we get comes from a different cheese being made. Any thoughts, or directions on where to get more research would be greatly appreciated!

John Knisley
Madelia, MN
Zone 4b

No discussion here about whey and I've been monitoring, hoping to see. I have organic dairy cows and lots of milk including whey. would love to kn ow I have a secret weapon right under my thumb and not using.