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Notes for Organic Apple Producers

Pruning Strategy:

Many growers have started on the annual task of tree pruning. Annual pruning is critical to maintain healthy productive buds in your trees, and can have major impact on your yields, fruit quality, ease of pest management and labour efficiency in your orchard.

Understanding why we prune is an important first step. Here are my "Thoughts on Pruning" online.

But in today's economic environment, it is important to do this task as efficiently as possible. Here are my "Thoughts on Pruning Efficiency":

Orchard renewal: Now is a good time to evaluate your orchards and remove blocks that are not productive (perhaps too old, pest issues, poorly adapted cultivars, site problems). Through the Orchard and Vineyard Transition program, financial assistance of $1,618.74 per acre is available to cover removal and disposal costs. This may be a good opportunity to remove disease susceptible cultivars and replace with disease resistant ones like Crimson Crisp (Coop 39). An additional $2 million from the Province has recently been added to this program to help grape, apple, and tender fruit producers.Applications are being processed through Agricorp on a first come, first served basis. Final application deadline is March 31, 2010 and removals must be completed by November 30, 2010.

Disease Resistant Apples:

Development of disease resistant apples has been ongoing for decades and progress has been made in improving fruit quality and growing characteristics. More than 25 commercial cultivars are described in our online factsheet, "Disease-Resistant Apple Cultivars".

A new fresh-market apple cultivar called 'CrimsonCrisp™' has caught the attention Dr. John Cline, University of Guelph at Simcoe. In 1999, they planted trees of 'Co-op 39' from the PRI breeding program (Purdue-Rutgers-Illinois). It matures about 5 days after Empire, with a rosy, red blush, and crisp, white-yellow flesh that is sweet and juicy. Read more in "CrimsonCrisp™ - A New Disease Resistant Apple Recommended for Trial Planting", now online.

Most of these cultivars are resistant to apple scab, but depending on your climate, be sure to learn about powdery mildew, rust and fire blight susceptibility.