Any thoughts on a good use for abandoned 1 acre trellised apple orchard?
I still have the trees and trellis but will no longer spay them and need something useful for area
May just see if the trees will produce animal food quality fruit with no spray before I remove them.
Prefer alternate crop for 32 rows 100 foot each with 4 wire trellis which would be better than removing the trellis system. I already have an acre of trellis blackberries
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Iâd think muscadine or kiwi could be good options. Muscadine seems like it has a lot of potential to sell commercially for added value products like wine or jams/jelly. I think youâve mentioned in the past that SWD has been a problem for you, is that still the case?
I agree muscadines could be a great option, but only if they are hardy in your area (zone 7 +). Hardy kiwis do best on a different type of trellis (T type trellis system). Blackberries would be a great option. The blackberries could be varieties that ripen before the muscadines (Arapaho, Natchez, etc). Just remember whatever you do, picking 1 acre of grapes and blackberries is a lot harder than picking 1 acre of apples and will take a lot more labor hours to harvest, sort, package etc. U-pick might be possible too.
Organic Apple Cider?
I was going to second organic apple cider and say rip out all varieties that cannot handle the no spray and interplant possibly jujube, sour cherries, maybe honeyberries? This would help all the others left a lot i feel and definitely blackberries work good but like pointed out you probably need to hire for harvesting or find somone who harvest and buys all? or interplanting and changing to a u pick is good.
Sorry to hear about your orchard loss but please stay positive this could turn into something beneficial.
Edit: probably should add honeyberries for shade planting underneath taller trees if going u pick and you could go the juliet romeo cj option for upick or processing or sours for processing. I always find monty a very good fresh eating cherry but i let it overripen which i think is impossible for u picks?
Depending on where you are, you may be able to find a market for your âugly fruitâ. Many value added producers of apple products donât mind imperfect fruit with a worm in it. They are looking for fruit that has not been sprayed for their products. You could ask around at farmers markets or natural food stores, or even put an ad up on Craigs list or if you have a facebook, on facebook market (I think thatâs what itâs called, I donât actually have a facebook, so forgive me if I got the name wrong) to see if anyone is interested.
Thanks for the many good ideas on recycling the apple orchard.
As a first step we have decided to eliminate all sprays on the apples and see if any varieties will produce useful fruit. Iâm in a very difficult climate for apples. My apples were sprayed over 12 times last year but I still had many defects that were not acceptable to customers.
Itâs very possible that zero sprays will produce zero useful apples but it will shorten my PYO season by half and my workload and chemical bill by roughly the same amount.
Less time wasted on apples should allow for more time on blueberries, blackberries and peaches. Hope its possible to make the same amount of net profit without the apples while eliminating half of the workload.
Often a worm (or two) is not the only problem with untreated crops. In my experience, much of the crop drops before harvest, and the harvest does not keep well. Sorting out the putrid from the blemished is time-consuming and disheartening. Processing the blemished is a less-than-gratifying prospect.
⌠but thatâs how my folks did it.
As many others have suggested. Muscadines are easy and fun to grow. There are so many good varieties available to plant. Most of your cost is in the trellis which you already have. Estimate of 50 pounds per vine at $2.50-3.50/lb.
âItâs very possible that zero sprays will produce zero useful apples but it will shorten my PYO season by half and my workload and chemical bill by roughly the same amount.â
But also, it wonât be doing anything to get you ahead or pay the bills. If it was me personally I would axe the apples and replant with something else ASAP. If you sprayed the apples 12x and still the apples were hardly profitable, then you know if you stop completely they will be a total mess. Why keep a zero profit, zero yield crop in the ground, just to wait and see it fail? It will take muscadines or something else a couple seasons to establish, so I would not waste any time. That is just my opinion on it.
Iâm with @Blake & I wish I knew more about muscadines. Two moonshiners on Discovery Channelâs âMoonshinersâ used their buddies muscadines (Polk County, TN) for a brew. The orchard was beautiful and exactly what these guys and you were talking about with how your trellis system, is.
I understand they have a musky smell or flavor and Iâm sure Iâd love them but Iâve never seen them. I would sure like to try them because when I come home from a grocery store I come home with three or four bags of the crispiest grapes they have on the shelf. I really like black grapes but the ones my Aldi grocery store carries have astringent skin over the sweetest flavored and crispy plus juicy grape you could ever want. I have the same fondness for green/yellow? grapes. All the Aldi stores here and there are many carry the âSampsonâ brand, grape.
Is it your intention to harvest or have customers harvest? Is your 1-acre thornless blackberry a you-pick or a combo you do picking also to sell? It seems youâre getting all the bang a buck will allow for that acre. Do you have any summer help kids or adults picking for you?
At my local farm is thorned blackberries and theyâll go pick them fresh while you wait or you can go pick them. They sell them too as freshly picked. Where do most of your sales come from: self pick and sell or let the customers go pick?
At one local apple farm people arenât allowed to enter the orchard and you had to buy bags of them from refrigerators fer 30-35$ each. I opted not to buy but my car passengers each hauled these huge back to the car and I gotta say they were magnificent. One variety and Iâd almost swear to it was Honeycrisp and they were the size of âhedge applesâ Maclura pomifera.
Another local is only you-pick but Iâve never been there, darnit. I gotta support.
Iâm going to think more about this and if I think of something Iâll say something again.
Hope you find a winner.
Iâm all for the holistic sprays and organic methods popularized by Michael Phillips and Stefan of Miracle Farms - but my little acre is too young to speak. I havenât even got trees transplanted from out of the nursery. What you say gives me pause on my aspirations, b/c it is probably more realistic of consumer demand than I would like to admit.
Personally I plan to cider and keep a few pigs with what isnât salable or storable.
Not sure what insects or diseases you deal with and I donât think you mentioned if you have other apples besides this block - you might be creating an innoculum reservoir - something to consider.
That is a good question that may take some explanation since it does not look rational.
Iâm older so my primary goal is not to do more work in order to make more money. My goal is to do Less Work and make More Money!
Muscadines would be a great choice to take advantage of the existing apple trellis and PYO customers
but Iâm not sure I have the energy to replant and start over with a new crop .
My son who is young and energetic will be taking over the farm and Muscadines may be perfect for him after he learns how to prune and care for blackberries, blueberries and peaches.
Why not take a portion of your acre and do some test plots before you invest real money? Are muscadine or kiwis or any the other crops you are considering already grown in your area? If not, I think being cautious would be wise.
If your thinking about muscadines plant a bunch of varieties in a test plot and see if they actually perform on your land. Cull the ones that donât and plant more of the ones that do. Do the same with any other crops your interested in.
Itâs possible none of these crops will work commercially in your area and youâre better off knowing this before you plant an acre of them. Even if they are commercially viable there is going to be a learning curve. Itâs better to learn from your mistakes on a small test plot rather than a large commercial planting. Itâs also cheaper.
I agree with what mroot says. Youâll want to check with your local agricultural extension office about muscadines. I would choose the most cold hardy types available. Maybe start with a few rows. The extension office will have all the info you need on pruning, etc. And just because noone else is doing it doesnât mean you canât! But it may be indicative of something you need to consider first.
Best wishes with it all!
If youâre looking for minimal work you could install a two wire electric fence and run hogs in there.
The Proâs:
Fruit quality would be irrelevant
You could sell the hogs and stand a shot of turning some profit
Quality homegrown fruit fed pork for your own consumption
It utilizes the trellis and fruit trees already established
Some insect pressure might be relieved by hogs consuming apple drops containing larvae
The Cons:
The hogs would have to be trained for the electric fence (easily done with hog panels over a week or two, but still an additional step)
Some form of housing would have to be constructed for the hogs
You would have to set up water troughs and feed additional feed if you run them when there isnât apples dropping
Depending on how you got your hogs, you may have to purchase hogs. It would be ideal if they were started by a farmer elsewhere and âfinishedâ on your property and the two of you split the hogs/proceeds.
Unless you go the livestock route I think youâre looking at a fair amount of work or almost no usable fruit.
I love you are passing on the family farm to your son and appreciate you are changing things to fit your goals and needs. Personally im a big fan of interplanting and think this is best utilized in a PYO style. I also like the idea of next year sawing out some varieties of apples and replanting muscadines and some other fruits to start trialing them before you go and replace the whole acre.
Muscadines grow wild around Lake Norman and Lake WileyâŚonly a half zone south of Greensboro, so winter hardiness should not be an issue.
Iâve not tried them in Kentucky, but I expect they would succeed in the Lake Cumberland area with careful site planning.
I totally get where you are coming from. I visited your website and FB site. Very nice looking operation. We also have the blueberry/peach/apple mix (no blackberries) and apples are by far the most time consuming crop to take care of. Iâve managed to keep up with the peaches but our blueberries have suffered somewhat from lack of time and energy. If I could do it all over againâŚno apples! Well in hindsightâŚmaybe a dozen semi-dwarf Honey Crisp. Our McIntosh & Cortland have been a pain in the you-know-whatâŚand they are on standard rootstock to boot.
Our blueberry & peaches are great complimentary fruitsâŚour season starts around mid-July for blueberriesâŚpeaches kick in mid-August and both are finished by mid-September.
Is growing apples or selling apples more of a problem for you?
Without apples my season runs about 10 weeks from June 1 until August 15. We are open 2 days/week and after 10 weeks we are sick of PYO customers and ready for vacation. Apples added 8 more weeks and it was very depressing to watch folks knock a lot of fruit on the ground. .