Farmers switching from corn

10 acres of apple orchard is pretty small production wise. When I was a late teen I worked on a 300 plus acre orchard in WV and today that family run business has over 1000 acres of orchard - there are several other family and corporate run outfits in the area of similar size. I dont see a handful of 10 acre orchards flooding any markets.

Do you have a cold storage facility in your area? Most of the apple farmers I have known who can not afford to build their own, rent space from a commercial facility for their storage requirements.

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Zone 7B / 8A

http://www.star-telegram.com/2014/02...ard-cider.html

Fort Worth Star Telegram has a good article about the return of the popularity of hard cider and new cider brands being started.

A lot of wisdom in planting a diversity of tree crops

Nearly all apple juice sold in the US is from concentrate. Nearly all apple juice concentrate is imported from China.
Lots more risk and long term investment in apples over corn. Some areas grow apples better than corn, some grow corn better than apples.

Sounds to me like a good way to send some pre-teen sons and daughters to college. A complete learning and working experience bankrolled by Dad. Learn growing, pruning, spraying, picking, storing skills. Put the cash away for tuition. Most needed skill, if all the rest of this risky venture succeeds, will be marketing skills and hard work. If it goes belly up, Dad writes it off........

If Dad or the family doesn't have that much knowlege of pomology or the willingness to finance a whole new line of specialized equipment... irrigation, frost protection, critter fencing, pruning hi lifts, ladders, forlklifts, sprayers, winter storage, farm visiter liability insurance, migrant housing.......

Buy Michigan apples. We made it look easy, so now everybody's trying it.

geo

As far as homesteading is concerned, start the orchard early.

Takes a few years for the trees to come in. We are down to a bad crab apple and almost dead plum tree in my grandparents orchard, and the folks 1950s orchard is just fading away now, apricot and pear are gone the last 5 years, the plum got attacked by a critter, and the 4 apple trees are winding down.

The next generation gets the best harvest.

Paul

I'm starting a tiny orchard here but apples are only being considered for the deer and maybe if there is leftover for juice- since I am not a millionaire to get USDA license, it will just be for me and my family and maybe even get a little wine for gift giving. Raw fresh apple juice from U.S. grown apples in near perfection itself. Nothing else labeled apple juice can touch it.

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Tiny Forest ~ my tiny blog

I would guess that is an income leveling thing. Since it takes a few years for apples to produce he only loses income froma small area in any given year. If he planted a large area all at once he'd have a huge drop in income until they started producing.

WWW

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If the grass looks greener it is probably over the septic tank. - troy n sarah tx

Our existance here is soley for the expoitation of CMG

Give someone thousands of dollars in subsidies to grow apples every year and you might have a switch from King Corn.
Til then, I doubt it.

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~*~Erin~*~
SAHM, ranch wife, sub and quilt shop proprietress
the Back Gate Country Quilt Shop

48 trees in 10 acres? That's 9075 sq. ft. per tree of a 95' by 95' spacing. something is wrong in the article.

On a 20' by 20' spacing he should beable to fit over 100 trees per acre.

WWW

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If the grass looks greener it is probably over the septic tank. - troy n sarah tx

Our existance here is soley for the expoitation of CMG

I think if you go back to the 1940's you will find that southern Il. was a major apple producer. Ease of storage and transportation has changed a lot of production practices. Southern IL. still has a lot of apple and peach production. It is now also becoming a wine production area. Fruit on a smaller scale is making a comeback in many areas due to farmers markets and the internet allowing people to find these smaller growers.

Feed the dirt!

Paul, sounds like you have a good supply of wood for smoking meat.

I grew up in apple country in Upstate New York ( ranked 2nd behind Washington State in production) and worked in orchards in WV - I knew Washington State grew a lot of apples but didnt know Michigan grew apples commercially.

I have a cousin who works closely with the fruit growers in New York State - he says most of the farmers have gone to espaliered trees - takes much less labor and more productive - also takes less chemical management.

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Zone 7B / 8A

I'm thinking Deer would have couple days of browse with 10 acres.

big rockpile

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I love being married.Its so great to find that one person you want to annoy for the rest of your life.



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Fact sheet for Michigan apples: http://www.michiganapples.com/grow1.html

geo