To summarize,the ORG farm management system posed significant production
challenges for crop load management, pest and weed control, and nutrient management. The biennial bearing pattern exhibited by the ORG system would have negatively impacted economic returns. Even though their color grade was similar to CON and INT apples, a smaller percentage of ORG fruit made marketable grade, largely due to their small size. Properly timed fruit thinning would likely have corrected the biennial bearing pattern in the ORG system, resulting in similar yields of marketable fruit among the systems. The smaller sized ORG trees may also have resulted in lower yields, but this may also have been corrected if an organically approved fertilizer with more available N had been applied when the trees were topworked to ‘Gala’. Overall, ORG apples stored better than CON and INT apples, which would have allowed the ORG apples to be sold later in the marketing season when prices are generally higher. ORG apples also had more antioxidant activity, which gives weight to the argument that there are potential
health benefits to eating organic fruit. N status
of the trees may explain some of the fruit quality differences seen in this study, but N status was not always consistent with differences in fruit quality between the CON and INT systems. Nonetheless, the ORG system displayed the potential to grow high quality ‘Gala’ apples with minimal synthetic inputs soon after being top-grafted. Many of the challenges associated with organic apple production will likely be overcome as new products and technologies become available to support the expanding production of organic apples.
To summarize,the ORG farm management system posed significant production challenges for crop load management, pest and weed control, and nutrient management. The biennial bearing pattern exhibited by the ORG system would have negatively impacted economic returns. Even though their color grade was similar to CON and INT apples, a smaller percentage of ORG fruit made marketable grade, largely due to their small size. Properly timed fruit thinning would likely have corrected the biennial bearing pattern in the ORG system, resulting in similar yields of marketable fruit among the systems. The smaller sized ORG trees may also have resulted in lower yields, but this may also have been corrected if an organically approved fertilizer with more available N had been applied when the trees were topworked to ‘Gala’. Overall, ORG apples stored better than CON and INT apples, which would have allowed the ORG apples to be sold later in the marketing season when prices are generally higher. ORG apples also had more antioxidant activity, which gives weight to the argument that there are potential health benefits to eating organic fruit. N status of the trees may explain some of the fruit quality differences seen in this study, but N status was not always consistent with differences in fruit quality between the CON and INT systems. Nonetheless, the ORG system displayed the potential to grow high quality ‘Gala’ apples with minimal synthetic inputs soon after being top-grafted. Many of the challenges associated with organic apple production will likely be overcome as new products and technologies become available to support the expanding production of organic apples.
การแปล กรุณารอสักครู่..
