Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
healthy, productive, and relatively easy to produce is more fun than strug-
gling for mediocre results.
The situation becomes more serious as orchard size and investment costs
increase. Purchasing land and establishing a large orchard are long-term de-
cisions that are difficult and expensive to change. Loss of trees and crops
and the extra care required to produce varieties poorly matched to a site
can make your enterprise unprofitable. Fruit growing should be fun and, for
some, profitable. That starts by picking a winning site.
This chapter is designed to help you pick out a great orchard site and
to match crops to your growing conditions. For those who already own their
orchard sites and have trees planted, this chapter is still important because
it will help you evaluate your site with the goal of improving it. At this time,
you should also consider how you plan to market your crops because this
will impact which crops you choose and how you set up your orchard. See
Climate
Climate sets the limits within which all other factors operate. Summer and
winter temperatures, length of the growing season, the amount of heat avail-
able during the growing season, precipitation, humidity, and, depending on
where you live, wind, all play key roles in growing fruit. The important thing
to recognize is that “climate” is not the same as “weather.” Climate refers to
temperature and precipitation patterns measured over decades. Weather, on
the other hand, is what you see out the window at any given moment.
Fortunately, the information you need to evaluate your climate is avail-
able online for Canadian and U.S. locations. The National Oceanic and Atmo-
sphere Administration (NOAA) Regional Climate Centers provide localized
al Climate Data and Information Archive provides similar information for
provide information on average frost dates, growing season lengths, and heat
units. Some regional Environment Canada websites help fill in this informa-
