Re: is it possible to grow fruit trees organically

On 26 Jul 2006 21:03:43 -0700, "simy1" <simy1@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


Jangchub wrote:

The way you grow organic fruit, commercial production included is to
support healthy soils, use of certified organic fertilizer, addition
of compost each year, good soil aeration, proper hygiene after the
production season is over, not leaving diseased fruits laying around,
etc. There is nothing anyone can do about rot on peaches, organic OR
synthetic. There's a lot more to it than you are willing to learn.

and chickens of course. Virtually all organic apple orchards have
chickens to clean up the orchard. Not really new technology - chickens
have been used as garden pesticides/weedkillers for thousands of years.
In the case of apples, both apple maggots and curculio overwinter as
grubs in the first two inches of soil, just within chicken range. If
you have seen them in action, eating everything from the most invisible
seed to 2-ft snakes, you know that they are very efficient. If you let
them into the garden when the veggies are up they will destroy it in a
day.

I just HAVE to share this story!

I used to keep laying hens. Oh, those big, gorgeous yolks that
practically stoodup and saluted! Real organic. too.

Though they had plenty of room to scratch around back in their own
fenced off area, I used to let them out into the yard to "play" once
in a while.

My office gives on the yard, so when the phone rang, and I had to
answer it (this was before mobiles), the chickens figured out that one
pretty quick; no sooner did the phone ring, they knew I was going to
answer it, so they HURLED themselves on my veg garden and
commenced to destroy.

Dom't tell me chickens are stupid (well, like Pavlov's dogs...

--

Persephone
.

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