August 9 column: Organic orchard practices

organic orchard practices

Here is a link to my column in today’s edition of The Spokesman-Review: Traps, sprays help keep fruit free of pests. It’s about a topic that is near and dear to my heart: organic orchard practices.

Since the most challenging tree fruits to grow are cherries, apples and pears, those are the ones I focused on. I also pointed out how my husband, Bill, and I have been fine-tuning our methods over the years. Each year, we learn a little more and have a little more success!

I hope you’ll enjoy reading today’s column.

I also promised in my column that I’d include links to previous posts about organic orchard practices, so here they are:

Fruits – Apple Barriers

Fruits – Organic Apple Report

It’s Apple Harvest Time!

Cherries and Birds

Insect Alert: Spotted Wing Drosophila

Keeping the Birds Out of the Cherries

And here are two columns I wrote about Cole’s Organic Orchard up on Green Bluff, which explains the methods orchardist Steve Cole uses:

1. Organic orchard (4/11/10)

2. Organic methods help trees thrive (9/12/08)

organic orchard practices
This is what an apple “footie” looks like.