Project Description
Sustainable & Organic
Featured stories about sustainable and organic appear in this issue.
Promoting ecolabel wines
A program that began by certifying vineyards in Oregon’s Willamette Valley that were following practices to protect and restore salmon watersheds has grown to include more than half the wine grape acreage of Walla Walla Valley in Washington and Oregon and several vineyards in eastern Washington.
Sustainability: imposition or opportunity?
Sustainability programs can help growers become more efficient, says Cliff Ohmart.
Meeting the organic challenge
Harry and Jackie Hoch (center) gather in their orchard for a family photo on Easter weekend, where unusual 80-degree weather advanced the season, requiring sprays
Woolly apple aphid
Syrphid fly larvae attack woolly apple aphids. The woolly apple aphid overwinters as a nymph on the roots of apple trees, but can also overwinter
Compost tea recipes
Tweaking the aeration time, handling, and changing additives can create diverse compost teas—even though they were made with the same compost. Washington State University researchers
What are compost teas?
Compost teas have been promised by some companies to be a wonder-all product, protecting plants from disease, increasing growth, breaking down toxins in the soil,
Last Bite–From doctor to farmer
The altimeter on John Kloeber’s label at right shows an altitude of 1,500 feet, a suggestion that fruit grown in orchards at high altitudes is
Good to Go
Italy orchard tour Susan Pheasant and Mauricio Frías are offering an intensive technical tour of South Tyrol orchards in November to learn about high-density orchard
Good Job
Apple Blossom Queen Margaret Robinson presented a plaque to WSU Extension Educator Tim Smith when he was named Apple Citizen of the Year 2010. Tim Smith
Getting trees off to a good start
This new planting, pictured at the end of the first season, started out as sleeping eyes and is irrigated with drip. Young trees need to
New organic organization
Minnesota grower Harry Hoch helped found a new organization called the Organic Tree Fruit Growers Association, and his wife, Jackie, is the first president. The
Solving the woolly apple aphid
Washington Fruit and Produce Company planted alyssum between the rows of this new orchard to attract syrphid flies, which are good predators of woolly apple
Good Point–Washington fruit industry scholarships change lives
Yadira Castaneda recently received the Jacque McDougall Memorial Scholarship, funded by McDougall and Sons of Wenatchee, and Cecelia Guzman received a CCM scholarship funded by
Growers surveyed on pest practices
Washington apple growers are adopting new pest management strategies and technologies including safer chemistries, in accordance with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency phaseout of azinphos-methyl