It is very important to us that we manage our land organically. In that pursuit, it is important for an organic orchard to have disease-resistant varieties of apple trees, too. So in addition to our English and French cider varieties, we have two disease-resistant ones.
These two, Priscilla, shown here, and Liberty, shown next, were developed in the U.S and recommended by the pomologist at Cornell University who is also very much into true cider-making. (So what is a pomologist? Well, that is a professor of pome fruits, primarily apples.)
These varieties have a nice acid content, making them tart, or in cider language, “sharp.” In fact, you can try them at our Cider Brandy release party on Thursday evening, October 3, at
Yahara Bay Distillers.
These two varieties have really come through for us, when a lethal disease did hit many of our English and French varieties when they first started to blossom. This underscores how important it is to have diverse varieties.
The disease-resistance also means we have to spray the trees less. “Spray the trees?” you might ask. Yes, organic does not mean
no-spray. It means that in managing pests, the materials used are biodegradable and natural, i.e., they are not synthetically made. So an organic orchard, in some years, may have to spray more often because the materials were washed off by rain or biodegraded by sun and heat.
But we also spray plant nutrients, such as liquid fish and kelp, and a kaolin clay product that does not kill anything, but makes life rather unpleasant for a particular beetle and so it leaves. That helps keep it from fulfilling its life cycle in our orchard and on our apples! By adding fish and kelp to sprays, we are not just spraying
against something, but
for something, and that is tree health.
We are starting to harvest the Priscilla apples now with Liberty close on it heels in a week.
These two, Priscilla, shown here, and Liberty, shown next, were developed in the U.S and recommended by the pomologist at Cornell University who is also very much into true cider-making. (So what is a pomologist? Well, that is a professor of pome fruits, primarily apples.)
These varieties have a nice acid content, making them tart, or in cider language, “sharp.” In fact, you can try them at our Cider Brandy release party on Thursday evening, October 3, at Yahara Bay Distillers.
These two varieties have really come through for us, when a lethal disease did hit many of our English and French varieties when they first started to blossom. This underscores how important it is to have diverse varieties.
The disease-resistance also means we have to spray the trees less. “Spray the trees?” you might ask. Yes, organic does not mean no-spray. It means that in managing pests, the materials used are biodegradable and natural, i.e., they are not synthetically made. So an organic orchard, in some years, may have to spray more often because the materials were washed off by rain or biodegraded by sun and heat.
But we also spray plant nutrients, such as liquid fish and kelp, and a kaolin clay product that does not kill anything, but makes life rather unpleasant for a particular beetle and so it leaves. That helps keep it from fulfilling its life cycle in our orchard and on our apples! By adding fish and kelp to sprays, we are not just spraying against something, but for something, and that is tree health.
We are starting to harvest the Priscilla apples now with Liberty close on it heels in a week.