TO: ubro FROM: Eric Koperek = erickoperek@gmail.com SUBJECT: Living Mulches for Orchards DATE: PM 6:15 Thursday 4 February 2016 TEXT: I recommend multiple species cover crops for both orchards and vineyards. Wide biodiversity is necessary to control insect pests. When I was a child, we sowed our apple orchards with buckwheat, turnips, and hairy vetch = winter vetch. This provided many flowers that supported beneficial predators and parasites. Translation: The good bugs ate the bad bugs. Rule: Plant small flowers to encourage beneficial insects. The good bugs have small mouth parts so planting big flowers does not work. Any plant in the Carrot Family = Dill, Fennel, Caraway, Coriander is a good choice. Lacy phacelia, mustard, tansy, feverfew, and clovers also produce abundant pollen and nectar that are easy for beneficial insects to reach. I like to include 1 / 16th part = 6.25% by weight of assorted perennial wildflowers in my cover crop mixtures. Annuals also work if they reseed freely = abundantly. Wildflowers encourage large populations of beneficial insects. As an added benefit, wildflowers also attract customers. Don't forget to include weeds in your orchard. Weeds provide food, shelter, and alternate hosts for beneficial insects. The idea is to keep a resident population of good bugs waiting for the bad bugs to arrive. Growing fruit trees in weeds can nearly eliminate many insect pests. Mow the orchard once yearly or only when trees are ready for harvest. I recommend planting fully dwarf fruit trees. Short trees are much easier to care for and harvest. Note: Do not fertilize dwarf fruit trees. Do not use any soil amendments. Just dig a hole in whatever soil you have and stick the tree in. (Make sure that the graft line is well above the soil surface). Good soil will make dwarf trees grow much taller which is a waste of money. As long as the trees grow 6 to 8 inches yearly, they are getting enough nutrients from the soil. Don't try to help them along or you will be sorry. Over-fertilized trees attract insect pests. Remember to water and mulch your trees. Apply mulch from the trunk to the drip line = the tip of the farthest branch. Use leaves, straw, hay, weeds, wood chips, hedge trimmings, grass clippings, any kind of organic matter will do. Apply mulch not less than 8 inches thick. If you don't have any mulch or if mulch is too expensive, plant mixed cover crops under the trees. Water is more important than fertilizer. As long as you have water, you can grow all the fertilizer you need. (This is why you should include a mixture of legumes in your cover crops). Note: If you space your trees widely, then you can plant row or hay crops between the trees. This will provide income while your trees are growing. We like to plant about 40 different species of trees, shrubs, and vines per acre. Broad genetic diversity greatly reduces insect pests and economic risk of crop failures. Don't plant anything you can't sell. Biodiversity does not pay unless every plant produces a cash crop. We run chickens in our orchards to control insect pests. Chickens are housed in mobile chicken coops on wheels. Move the coops 200 feet every night so chickens have fresh pasture each morning. Chickens on good pasture will get most of their food from bugs, worms, seeds, and leaves. Pasturing chickens greatly reduces feed costs: Portion only 1 to 2 Tablespoons = approximately 1/2 to 1 scale ounce of rolled grain daily per chicken. Keep moving chicken coops all year long. 30-day rotations (1 day grazing followed by 30 days rest) are best. Pastures need about 1 month to re-grow before they are grazed again. Long rotation periods are also necessary to control chicken parasites. Remember: Your best investment is an irrigation system. I would not start any commercial agricultural operation without a reliable water supply. Dwarf fruit trees are expensive. Water is cheap. Don't be penny wise and pound foolish. Water your trees and cover crops. I hope this information will help get you off to a good start. For more information on old-fashioned biological agriculture, visit: www.agriculturesolutions.wordpress.com -- or -- www.worldagriculturesolutions.wordpress.com -- or -- send your questions to: Agriculture Solutions, 413 Cedar Drive, Moon Township, Pennsylvania, 15108 USA -- or -- send an e-mail to: erickoperek@gmail.com end comment.

Just thought of something funny about "weeds" so I'll share it to give you all a grin. When I started gardening at my current home about 15 years ago, I had all raised beds and would mulch them to keep the weeds down. Inevitably, I would run out of mulch before all the beds were done, so some would quickly become overrun by weeds and grass. I had a customer visiting my gardens one day and she commented on the "healthy living mulch" in some of my beds. Being in the nursery business at the time, I swallowed hard and smiled because I didn't have the nerve to tell her that it was plain old weeds infesting my beds!!! I had those beds weeded within a couple of days.........;)

MsMisk ~ love your purple/reddish cockscombs and those wonderful blue morning glories behind. Wow! Eduarda ~ I want you to know that I miss you being here. Ellen ~ your goldenrod and asters make a wonderful combination. I need to see if I can get some goldenrod to grow down here (zone 10 s.e. FL), as I don't have a lot of yellow and those looks so 'cottagey'. lindakimy ~ I love your blooms and your coleas are so wonderful too. Is that Russian sage in the background behind your yellow flowers? Michelle ~ Love your gardens and that we could see it from above. Your dear GD is a sweetie. It is still hot and humid down here in Plum Cottage gardens. When oh when will we get some cooler weather? They are predicting night time temps in the high 50's the end of the month. We'll see, it sure would be a welcome relief. I've been working in my potting garden. Setting up my mini green house and getting ready to plant some seeds for lots of colorful blooms these next 6 months or so. I've still got weeds to pull, vines to trim and weedwacking to do. I've said I'd like more garden space, but I really don't think so latley. Our 1/4 acre is plenty for me to handle these days. I don't want to be overloaded. I want to putter and enjoy our little haven. Happy Gardening ~ FlowerLady

Carol, still around. Moved in with my DD last June and have gardened there a bit. Brought my tomatos, a pepper, and several butterfly and hummer plants with me. Updated an existing bed in the front of the house, dug two new ones. But, I am not sure I'll be doing much this summer. I'd like to plant a few tomatos, like Black Cherry and SunGold, but funds are so limited I doubt I'll be able to order them, so will just go with seeds I already have. We didn't get too many tomatos last year, but the ones we did were superb, I had better luck with butterflies - lots of Black Swallowtails, Giant Swallowtails, Gulf Frits and tons of Sulphurs of various species. We are plugging along. I think Jess is finally pulling out of her health issues and feeling better. The kids are growing fast. Kenna is 12 yo, and Charlotte will be 4 yo in June. We won't say what Nanny's age is, lol! How are you and hubby? Susan