Green-tech

There are two main types of apple – dessert varieties which are eaten fresh and culinary or ‘cooking’ apples which are generally large in size and very sharp if eaten raw and need to be cooked before eating (usually with the addition of sugar). A few varieties are dual-purpose – they can be used either for cooking, or eaten raw after a period of storage to allow the apples to sweeten. There are also varieties grown specifically for cider-making. Some varieties of apple are ready for harvest as early as late July, but most will be ready for picking in September or October. For the benefit of the school calendar, we have selected varieties which will be ready for harvesting at the start of the school year in September. Most of the varieties listed below have good or partial resistance to scab or mildew, which are common disease problems in apple (see later section on ‘pests and diseases’) and are relatively easy to grow. Training Apple Trees. There are many different ways i

Getting the pruning right can make the difference between whether or you not your trees bear fruit, and is one of things we answer most questions about! Apricots and cherries are often pruned in summer, but other fruit trees such as peaches, nectarines, plums, apples, and pears are usually pruned when the trees are dormant, in winter. On the farm we prune about 5,000 trees each year, including cherries, apricots, peaches, nectarines, plums, apples and pears. Pruning can be extremely confusing – every book (or expert) seems to tell you a different thing! That’s why we base all our teaching on an understanding of the basic principles, because once you understand how a tree is likely to respond to a pruning cut, it makes it much easier to make pruning decisions. There’s no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ with pruning – there’s just understanding the basics, getting to know your trees, and the wisdom that comes with experience and pratice. Got a monster tree in the backyard? Occasionally a

When it comes to keeping your fruit trees healthy, prevention is better than cure! Keeping your fruit trees strong with healthy soil, good pruning, enough nutrition and water, and managing the crop load, as we’ve already described, are the first steps to preventing pests and diseases. Healthy trees are much less likely to be attacked (just like healthy people are less likely to get every cough and cold that’s going around!). There’s also lots of strategies you can use to protect your fruit trees from pests and diseases (these are the tricks that professional organic orchardists use): • Pick up all fruit from the ground under your trees throughout the fruit season, as it can easily spread disease to healthy fruit. • Make sure enough light and air can circulate around your fruit trees with pruning and weed control. Monitor your tree for pests and treat them—only if necessary—before they cause too much damage to a tree. Very often, the appearance of a pest will be followed by

Women are strong drivers of agroecological change in farming and consumer communities. One example is the women’s movement for agrobiodiverse, pesticide-free crop production in India. In other places, women experiment with intercropping, vegetable box schemes and seed exchanges. What motivates them? And what role does agroecology play in improving the lives of women? There are 500 million small scale farm families around the world, and 70% of the agricultural work on these farms is done by women. According to FAO, women could increase their productivity by up to 30% if they had the same access as men to productive resources. We have long known that women hold important agriculture and food knowledge, and that they are a force pushing for agroecological changes that lead to resilient farming. Where men tend to focus more on economic gains, women’s ultimate concerns tend to food sovereignty and nutrition, social stability and peace, and the conservation of biodiversity and nat

One of America’s most widespread and costly environmental problems is nutrient pollution in its streams and waterways caused by excess nitrogen and phosphorus in the environment. Using existing technologies to remove nitrogen from wastewater in treatment plants in the Chesapeake Bay alone costs an estimated $8.2 billion. ARS scientists have come up with a game-changing water purification technology to remove nitrogen from wastewater at one-third the cost of existing technologies. ARS has teamed up with a commercial partner to expand use of the new technology in household septic tanks in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, where 52,000 septic systems need to be upgraded to be able to remove nitrogen. The new technology could cut the cost of these upgrades by two-thirds, saving up to $446 million in Maryland for septic upgrades. The technology is also being provided to NASA so that astronauts can use it to recycle wastewater in space. Kill The Crop Killers Organically Methyl