Status of project: The orchard was established in May of 2004. Seventy percent of the trees were Gold Rush and Enterprise. These were planted in a 2 acre block located at the Penn State Fruit Research and Extension Center, Biglerville, PA. Additional apple trees will be planted this 2005 season to complete the 1 acre each of Gold Rush and Enterprise for the organic demonstration orchard. This orchard will be utilized over the next ten years to develop some recommendations to assist growers in transitioning their orchards into organic apple production.

Enterprise and Goldrush were selected for this orchard because both varieties have resistance to diseases and they have potential of being used as a processing apple or for fresh market. These varieties are currently being tested by processors to determine their potential for the processed market. Apple diseases, insects and other pest problems will be observed throughout the 10 year duration of the project. The economics for establishing and maintaining an organic orchard will be determined.

Bashar planting apple trees	Organic Apple Orchard	Bill Kleiner discussing organic requirements

Results/Accomplishments 2004: Insect Pests, Disease and Weed Management
Trilogy (Neem oil), and Stylet Oil were sprayed to control insects and diseases. Japanese beetles and leaf hoppers were prevalent in the block during the 2004 crop season. There was no major occurrence of diseases except for fire blight. Six Gold Rush trees died due to shoot blight infection. It appeared that Enterprise was more resistant to fire blight than Gold Rush. Weed management was accomplished through hand hoeing, organic herbicides, and "mechanical hoeing" via a Weed Badger. The Weed Badger was borrowed from a grower and is a tractor-mounted, PTO-driven cultivator that tilled right up to the tree without damaging the plant. Cultivation by the Weed Badger is efficient and effective when weeds were still young. The use of organic herbicides such as Ground Force and Matran (containing vinegar/acetic acid) was also tested in some of the tree-rows but did not prove effective. More testing on organic herbicide application timing is scheduled.

Weed Badger	Weed Badger close-up	weed burner	weed burner, closeup of flame

2004 Organic Apple Orchard History Activities/Notes: The block was previously planted with 40 year old apple trees that were removed in the winter of 2001. The field was planted with corn and wheat in 2002 and 2003, respectively, using conventional corn and wheat management. Herbicides applied in 2002 were Bicep II, Dual Magnum and Prowl and fertilized with 10-20-20 of NPK in 2003. The organic orchard is surrounded by experimental apple orchards utilized for the evaluation of alternative disease management of scab, fire blight, powdery mildew and other summer diseases including orchard floor management and rootstock screening for fire blight.

2004 Record of cultural /pest management activities after planting: See Organic Orchard Pest Control Update, 2005
a. May 17 - Pruned new trees
b. May 26 - Removed blossoms
c. June 24 - Observed presence of fire blight, powdery mildew and leaf hoppers
d. June 29 - Sprayed 1 % Organic JMS Stylet Oil to control powdery mildew
e. July 1 - Cut fire blight infected shoots
f. July 8 - Sprayed Aza-Direct 1 pt/A to control leaf hoppers
g. July 13- Second spray of Aza-Direct at 1.5 pt/A
h. July 15 - Applied Streptomycin to control fire blight at 8 oz/A
i. July 21 - Irrigated the block at 4 gal/tree
j. July 22 - Applied organic fish nutrient fertilizer (OmegaGrow) at 2 gal/A
k. August 24- Controlled weeds by hand hoeing
l. September 1 - Controlled weeds with Matran 2 (6gal/A) and Ground Force (5gal/A)
m. September 2 - Applied fish nutrient fertilizer (OmegaGrow) at 2 gal/A