Orchard Consultations

Simple acts like mowing have
biological ramifications: The first flush
of tree feeder root growth begins just as
grass gets scythed down following apple
bloom. (photo: Frank Siteman)

with Experienced
Holistic Fruit Growers

Organic Farming's
FINAL FRONTIER

Tree fruits are challenging to grow. The season from bud break to harvest is long, providing plenty of opportunities for pests and disease to take hold. Good answers lie in emphasizing health orchard-wide, from microorganisms that ally with tree feeder roots and ensure competitive colonization on leaves to the giving trees themselves and the incredibly tasty fruit that nourishes our bodies. Delving deep into the complexities of fruit growing can be daunting. Sound advice can keep your orchard vision both sustainable and fun.

Growers in the Holistic Orchard Network have a number of ways to explore the lessons Nature insists on teaching in each new growing season. Some may want direct personal advice about the challenges at hand. Below you will find listings for regional advisors that can help accelerate any community orchardist's learning curve.

Looking for an Orchard Mentor?

Michael Phillips offers a grower consultation service for people desiring solid advice about holistic orcharding. You can choose literally to "walk" through an entire growing season with the author of The Holistic Orchard and The Apple Grower via ongoing chats and emailed reports, always aimed at increasing your understanding of what it takes to produce a commercial crop of health-providing apples. Looking at the scale of a fruit growing operation and discovering innovative market opportunities can be equally valuable. Some people value a homestead visit as essential to their apple growing future to fine-tune management approaches for a specific locale. Others simply want a good chunk of time on the phone to get important questions answered.

Realizing the dynamics of orchard ground as a whole is the key to successful organic orcharding. Michael brings years of personal experience and insight to a consulting partnership, putting you at the top of your game. Please check out the full range of consulting options and the costs involved on his Lost Nation Orchard website:

Mike Biltonen, Holistic Orchard Consultant

Mike Biltonen: The secret to healthy orchards begins with a deep, visceral understanding of biology and ecology. A healthy orchard is robust and alive with biodiversity and good food for all. The birds and the bees, the soil and the trees, insects, fungi, wind, water, and weeds -- they all matter. For 30 years I have worked with all facets of pomology and fruit production. Though I am currently a full-time consultant for passionate, tree fruit enthusiasts, the vast majority of those years I have been a grower. There is no doubt that the trials and tribulations of tree fruit growers everywhere (including myself) have broadened my mind's-eye to the realities of growing apples and other tree fruit in the northeast. I work with growers of all sorts from large, commercial operations to smaller, innovative growers. I work with each individually to help them shape their practices to be more ecologically sensitive and to help them establish and implement avant-garde practices that will one day trickle up (or stampede) to the mainstream. I have expertise in insect and disease management, fertility, crop load management, pruning, orchard establishment -- you name it. Through my consulting I push the envelope of current pomological thinking to tap into the full power of nature so that 'organic' and 'holistic' are fanciful terms we look back on fondly one day. There's something else lurking out there and I for one am itching to find out what it is. Care to join me?

Supporting members of GrowOrganicApples.com may request a listing as a holistic orchard consultant. Please contact us to talk through the possibilities.