Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
As I mentioned earlier, keep safety foremost in your mind when designing
your U-pick farm. Large livestock, dangerous equipment, and farm ponds
should be out of sight or otherwise inaccessible. Bees are important in orch-
ards but do not mix well with customers. Remove hives from the fields be-
fore harvest and place them at least a quarter mile from customer areas.
Strictly follow pesticide regulations to avoid exposing workers and custom-
ers to danger. Keep pesticides and sprayers out of sight and reach of cus-
tomers. If you are asked if you use pesticides, be totally honest. Keep detailed
records of your pesticide use, whether organic or nonorganic.
In terms of orchard design, it's a good idea to use small trees and bushes
that allow most or all of the fruit to be harvested without ladders. Trellises
and other narrow training systems work very well. Keep planting blocks rel-
atively small with short rows to facilitate customer picking. Few of us would
feel comfortable with customers driving around our orchards. For customers
picking a carton or more of fruit, allow them to leave the cartons at the ends
of the tree rows, and use your own farm vehicle to transport the fruit to the
sales stand.
Although alfalfa is an excellent alley crop for orchards, walking on alfalfa
stubble is less than pleasant. For a U-pick orchard, consider maintaining the
alleys in a relatively fine-textured grass sod. Mow the alleys and under the
trees, ensure the orchard is attractive, and do some thorough weeding before
you open up the orchard to pickers. Avoid doing any cultivation that leaves
large clods or powdery dust for customers to walk through. Remember to
keep the entire orchard experience pleasant for customers.
Roadside Stands
Marketing produce and value-added products from roadside stands is a pop-
ular option for small and medium-sized operations. In some cases, road-
side stands are combined with U-pick and farmers' market operations to
provide customers with alternatives and to increase sales. With a roadside
stand, you can either market only your own produce or broker produce from
other growers to increase the diversity of your goods. Two or more grow-
Search WWH ::




Custom Search