Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPTER 4
Preparing or Upgrading Your Orchard Site
CHAPTER CONTENTS
Early organic horticulturists focused heavily on soil health, declaring that
healthy soils were essential for healthy crops. Although organic advocates
have continued to use that mantra for more than a century, the concept
was widely ridiculed or minimized by many commercial fruit growers and
agricultural scientists. By adding enough fertilizers and using herbicides,
orchardists were able to produce abundant crops with little regard to the
soil, although root and collar diseases and replant disorders were common.
We are finding, however, that orchard soils are far more complex than we
once thought and do, indeed, play a key role in tree health and productivity.
