The Challenges Facing Organic Apple Production in Atlantic Canada

Bill Craig, M.Sc., P.Ag., AgraPoint Horticulturist

The increasing demand for organically produced produce would appear to be an opportunity for Atlantic apple growers. In a production system that promotes sustainability and good stewardship of the environment, it is a bit ironic that apples are shipped all the way across North America to supply the large retails grocery chains.

In North America the greatest volume of organic apples are produced on the west coast where apples are grown in a dry climate where the fungal disease Apple Scab doesn’t flourish. Apple Scab attacks the foliage and fruit of the most commonly grown apples during periods of wet weather and if not controlled makes the fruit unmarketable and reduces yields.

In the Atlantic Region producers must apply upwards of ten fungicide applications to control this disease. Growers that choose to produce apples organically have only a couple of options for controlling Apple Scab; those being copper, sulfur and lime sulfur which primarily protect the leaves and fruit from Apple Scab infections and need to be applied after every heavy rainfall. Those growers that wish to produce the commonly known cultivars such as McIntosh and Cortland under organic guidelines and meet the quality standards demanded by the marketplace need ten or more sprays of sulfur to control the disease in a wet growing season.

The most viable option for those wishing to produce apples organically is to plant disease resistant apple cultivars. These cultivars are not well known by the general public, thus marketing of a new cultivar is always a challenge. Cultivars such as Red Delicious, McIntosh, Cortland, and Gala are recognized and consumers know the quality of these cultivars, however disease resistant cultivars such as Red Free, Novamac, Novaspy and Liberty are not.

Over 100 disease resistant cultivars have been named, however only a small number of these are available from commercial apple nurseries. Nova Easygro, Novamac and Novaspy are three disease resistant cultivars that have been produced in our own backyard at the Atlantic Food and Horticultural Research Centre located in Kentville.

The Research Centre continues to evaluate crosses that were made in the past for suitable apple candidates to name. Several new disease resistant apple cultivars should be named and released over the next few years from the Atlantic Food and Horticultural Research Centre.

The earlier introduction of disease resistant cultivars may not have matched up to the quality of the commonly grown cultivars and quite often these cultivars had tough leathery skin. The quality of disease resistant cultivars continues to improve and many of these cultivars are also resistant to other diseases such as powdery mildew and fire blight.

At a recent two-day course on commercial organic apple production the following disease resistant cultivars were recommended for the Atlantic Region: early season; Pristine and Williams Pride; mid season; Red Free, Novamac and Galarina; late season; Liberty, Topaz, Crimson Crisp, Crimson Gold and Gold Rush.

The second major challenge is insect control but it is not as daunting as disease control. The Atlantic region, with its shorter growing season, means that growers have to deal with only one generation of most pests where as on the west coast they have to deal with two or three generations of the same pest within a growing season. We are also fortunate that plum curculio is not a major pest like it is in Ontario and many of the Eastern US apple producing states.

There are a number of viable options for insect control. Producers can make use of dormant oil spray to control mites and aphids, insecticidal soap to control aphids, Surround, a clay product to control apple maggot, mating disruption to control codling moth and Dipel and Entrust to control caterpillar species. All of which are naturally occurring products that fit within organic guidelines.

Orchard nutritional requirements can be met by the use of mulch and compost while mulching can control weed growth. Crop load management options on the other hand are limited to the use of hand thinning and the application of lime sulfur during bloom. Research at the Atlantic Food and Horticultural Research Centre continues to look at other options for crop load management as well as orchard nutritional.

Some 27 people recently attended the two-day workshop on Commercial Organic Apple Production conducted by AgraPoint to learn about means to overcome the challenges of organic apple production in the Atlantic Region. Hopefully in the near future consumers will see more locally produced organic apples in the produce section of the major grocery chains.

For more information on organic apple production or other horticulture crops, contact Bill at (902) 678-7722 or b.craig@agrapoint.ca

 

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Posted with permission, September 2007