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Welcome to OrganicA - a resource for organic apple production The pages of this site are intended to provide information to New England apple growers who are interested in organic apple production and who want to examine the opportunities of organic production given the shift in cultivars and the new research-generated information that is available. This information is a product of The OrganicA Project, a multi-disciplinary, multi-state project which incorporates available knowledge and information to build an interactive, vibrant community of growers, researchers, and educators for the exchange and generation of information and knowledge to enhance adoption of organic practices and to improve the competitiveness of organic apple producers. If you are considering organic apple production, it is important to thoroughly know the regulations and process of organic certification right from the beginning. It is the grower’s responsibility to ensure that any crop production practice or material used in the orchard is acceptable in their particular state’s organic certification program. Some materials deemed organically acceptable on the National List may not be acceptable in some states. Contact your certifier to know what is acceptable and to ensure compliance with regulations in your state. There is interest in organic apple production in New England although there are very few certified organic orchards in the region. This is partly because of the many native and introduced arthropod pests that have been difficult to manage using organically-accepted methods and tools and because of horticultural challenges such as thinning the apple crop in an economically viable, organic way (i.e., finding a reliable alternative to hand-thinning). In addition, the usually wet weather in the spring and during the growing season in New England and the predominant apple cultivar grown (i.e., ‘McIntosh’) have provided significant challenges in disease management, particularly of apple scab. However, recent shifts in consumer preference for ‘newer’ cultivars have led to the planting of different apple cultivars which have different disease susceptibility and research has identified potential alternatives to insect and horticultural obstacles to organic apple production in the region. Thus, these web pages are taking a new look at organic apple production and exploring its opporunities and challenges given current knowledge and trends. |
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