Orchard Report

James Douglas, July 2010. douglas.k.james@gmail.com Introduction 2

PART 1: PLANTED GARDENS

Fukuoka-Inspired Gardens John Jeavons Inspired Gardens

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2 3

PART 2: UNIVERSITY VISITS

Orchard Post Processing Unit Extension Ofce

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5 5 10

PART 3: FUTURE OF THE PROPERTY

Observations Discussion And Recommendations Summary Contacts References

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12 15 18 19 19

Appendix 1: Apple Belt Casting a Dark Shadow

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Introduction In July, 2010 I spent 20 days at an apple orchard near Chambatown, Uttarakhand, India. The orchard had no longer been in production for a number of years. The trees are approximately 16 years old and have productive life left in them but the orchard has been mostly abandoned, with only sporadic pruning. Part of the property is being used as a camp for tourists. My goal was to research options for bringing the property back into agricultural production. On many days I spent a period walking through the orchard, observing. Much of my time was spent at the nearby agricultural university campus, D.B. Pantnagar Hill Campus, Rani Chauri. I was able to visit their orchard, spend time in their library and visit their post processing facility. The people at the university were very welcoming, excepting the Extension department. I spent some time establishing miniature gardens, mostly for illustration and experimental purposes.

PART 1: PLANTED GARDENS

Fukuoka-Inspired Gardens Ive planted a number of very small areas near the house. The planting time for the rst crop of most vegetables was before I arrived, but I went ahead anyways. Fukuoka recommends planting vegetables in an area dominated by white clover and other plants. That is, vegetables planted must be able to compete with the surrounding turf. This offers many advantages over a tilled eld, not the least of which are that it doesnt have to be tilled! Ive noticed before the rains most of the water comes from dew. The frequent and heavy fog makes a heavy dew. Tilled soil cant properly collect dew. Also a proper turf greatly prevents erosion. So I think his idea has a lot of relevance for your farm. As mentioned above, one of the key plants that Fukuoka uses is white clover, which is already growing naturally on your farm. I think its population should be raised by broadcasting seed but it is very good that it seems to be an indigenous species. Peas Surrounding an apple tree to the SE of the cabin Ive planted some peas in radial lines, emanating outwards from the tree. They are planted in very narrow, about 5 cm tilled strips. Emergence has been poor but there will be some pea plants growing there, xing nitrogen for the tree. The pea plant is also a good vegetable, not only the pods and seeds but the climbing tendrils (dragon whiskers). Corn Ive set up an experiment with corn to investigate a bit the idea of planting seeds directly into the turf. There are four plots of three rows each: 1 One with corn planted in a slice in the turf (planted july 9). 2 One with corn planted just in a jab in the ground I made with a knife- not a slice the full length of the row, just inserting the seed into the turf (planted july 10). 3 One with corn planted in rows with the turf removed (planted July 11). 4 One with corn planted in rows of a thoroughly tilled garden bed. (planted July 12)

 The beds are in this order, with number 1 being closest to my cabin. The rows are marked with sticks where they are hard to see. Amaranth Fukuoka frequently recommends digging trenches and putting branches (coarse organic matter) in them, then coving the trenches (Ref. 3). He sites this as a rapid way to build soil. Ive tried this in an area next to the carrot bed (see below). Ive dug three trenches about 20 cm deep and put in quite a few dead kaalamaas sticks. I hope the kaalamaas doesnt have a herbicidal or other negative effect, as it is a medicinal plant and Im not sure of all its properties. On top of this I replaced the soil dug out from the trench then Ive planted amaranth collected from a nearby plant. I think amaranth is an excellent crop, and it is highly recommended by Vandana Shiva. It is useful for many things but the reason I planted it is to create biomass for compost. Sir Albert Howard (Ref. 5) recommends keeping a patch on the farm for compost production, and treating the land exceptionally well in that patch. The patch can produce compost for the rest of the farm. I decided to set this up in a microcosm mostly as a demonstration. Compost is used in the John Jeavons garden and he also recommends having a patch dedicated to compost production. The difference is that John Jeavons recommends using a plant that serves dual purpose, producing food and compost. So this one little plot is a fusion of no less than a fusion of the ideas from four great agricultural minds! Wheat Ive planted a small wheat patch as well to see how well it produces compost crop. It is quite a conventional piece of work; tilled land, and the wheat in furrows. Daikon and Palak Simon and his friend tilled an area for a vegetable garden. For whatever reason the plants were dead and gone when I got there so I planted some rows of daikon and palak. I planned to plant the entire plot in this but it became obvious that it was doing well as a biomass plot so I decided to see how it performed in this way instead. I should note that as of my departure (July 30) none of the plots intended to generate biomass are very well advanced compared to nearby established amaranth areas or areas thick in tall grass. The patches require time to become established before they can generate much, or at least should have been planted earlier in the season. John Jeavons Inspired Gardens The John Jeavons method (Ref. 4) is based on the principle that soil requires a lot of air and compost. Also, if you plant at the right spacing then weeds will not compete because they will be shaded out. This close planting also helps create a better soil climate; as the Fukuoka method, this method is opposed to having bare soil. Most conventional vegetable growing maintains substantial bare soil. I did an experiment with this method on the farm I was at in Canada (Everdale Organic Farm and Learning Center) and one thing that I noted was that this method is excellent for growing carrots. Carrots like loose, aerated soil to grow in and this also

makes them easy to harvest. The soil here is quite a heavy clay so it may settle to an extent that the carrots arent in an ideal situation but the soil is also free of rocks which is good for carrots. This method is very labor intensive. The bed is prepared with a method called double digging wherein essentially the top twelve inches in entirely moved and put back, while the next lower twelve inches is loosened (a mumti and pickaxe are what I used although these are not the recommended tools). This creates a very uffy soil. Normally you would put compost in as well but we dont have any yet. I set up a double dug bed using the (repaired :-) ) mumti and pickaxe. On July 17 I planted carrots in a hexagonal pattern at three inch spacing. The spacing is from memory because I dont have the book available for reference; Im not sure if its correct. As of my departure the carrots have not emerged, and I have not tested the seeds for germination.

PART 2: UNIVERSITY VISITS

Orchard On July 21 I visited the orchard. As you may already know they have baby trees for sale, which I obviously recommend asking about if you want new trees. Their soil is tilled in the spring, then the grass is cut intermittently. Grass is NOT removed from the site. No animals are allowed to graze. Their terraces are well formed, show no evidence of erosion and the sides of the terraces are thoroughly held together by a wall of grass. Their soil is spongy to walk on after the rain. I have learned from an orchardist in Canada that this is a very good sign of soil fertility. It shows high air content, a lot of active organisms and lack of compaction. The growth of plants under the trees is lush and thick. The soil at your orchard for the most part shows sparse vegetation (except in the vegetable garden area near the house), erosion, of terraces, and hard soil. I think it is because of the constant cutting and export of the grass. The soil needs this carbon to be at full health. The grass should be essentially eaten by soil microorganisms and provide microclimate. Instead, your neighbors are taking it off site to feed to their animals. Perhaps even worse, they sometimes bring their animals onto the land to graze, which compacts the soil as the animals walk on it. Animal manure is at least left which returns some of the nutrients, but this manure also causes a problem with lth ies. It is my belief that during grazing, although some nutrients is returned through manure, most of the nutrients are lost, some becoming part of their esh and much lost to the atmosphere. Fukuoka shares my uncommon opposition to grazing animals. The University is growing kiwi, which surprised me. They have a new walnut plantation and one chestnut tree. They are also growing plums, peaches and apricots. They showed me one pear tree which was quite old. It had been cut down and new branches spliced onto it. I wonder if this would work as an orchard renewal technique as a way to circumvent replant disease. Ref. 2 recommends that to close the pruning cut one should use either asphalt sealing paint, as long as it has no toxic chemicals like creosote, or Chaubattia (if I remember the name correctly) paste. The University orchard uses as green paste which I think is this Chaubattia paste. I notice a mixture of things seem to have been used at your farm. Post Processing Unit On July 23 I visited Dr. S.K. Sarma at the Post Harvesting Lab (PHL). He was very intelligent, knowledgeable and helpful. Not only does he know a lot about technical processing of fruit, he is also knowledgeable in the political situation of marketing, transport, packaging and so on. He has published a book for undergraduate students about post harvesting technology. He is also starting a journal about hill agriculture, website: isharanichouri.webs.com. He shared some valuable insights with me into the current Indian situation after fruit has been harvested. Much of it is wasted because it is carelessly handled, transported and processed. He thinks that it is absurd that people would be so careless as to literally throw away up to 40% of their harvest; he compares it to earning 100 000

Rs per year and throwing away 40 000 Rs. For some reason farmers have accepted this loss, but who else would accept a loss like this? As far as distribution is concerned he was very clear about his opinion that the fewer middle people in distribution, the better the model. Direct from producer to consumer is best for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that the producer can get up to ve or more times the money for their produce. Obviously this is a high recommendation to use as many apples as you can to people in your resort. This could include juice, cider, dried apples, pies etc. The more apples you can use directly in your resort, the more your prot margin is likely to increase. Besides, the more ne apple products you can serve people, the more atmosphere you will create for your apple orchard resort. Dr. Sarma spoke to me about successful apple orchards in India. Some people are making a lot of money from apples in the hills, especially in HP. He was of the opinion that initial capital is key. Perhaps most important, initial capital allows installation of irrigation which gives the ability to deliver water at key times. He noted a particularly successful apple farmer, Ram Lal Johan, who went to the trouble of installing 6km of pipe and a large tank to bring water to his farm, at his own expense. According to Ref. 1 apples require a lot of water compared to other crops (which is an ecological complaint that the author makes) and the trees must be watered at the correct time to achieve high yield. The larger apple growers have advantages. For example, they can hire their own trucks and t about 300 boxes per truck. This is important because for small farmers the apples are collected from many different farms and put into one truck. During price setting, this truck is randomly sampled, and the price set for the entire load based upon the apple quality in one box. So, if you have high quality apples you will likely not receive a higher price for them. This is another reason to avoid the conventional marketing channels, assuming you intend to grow high quality apples. He shared with me that there is a Market Intervention Scheme which the government runs to buy apples at low prices for juice. This is a good backup for apples which are not good enough for other purposes. However, as I have mentioned I recommend making your own juice. Also, he told me that there is a government insurance scheme for occurrences like hail. After your experience this year you might be interested! The Apple Growers Association of India is a powerful organization, but operates almost exclusively in H.P. They have three primary activities: 1. Pressure the government to make sure they deliver the packing boxes on time (they are mostly produced at a government run factory). 2. Pressure government to repair and clear roads so that product can be delivered. 3. Lobby for the Market Intervention Scheme, prices etc. He also told me that some people are growing poplar trees surrounding their apple trees, then sell these poplars to the pulp factories to produce apple boxes. They are generally doing this just to make money. It seems like a good ecological practice to me and I recommend it. If the use of paper boxes is unavoidable then the pulp should be responsibly produced, instead of cutting down good forest. Poplar trees can be very easily planted from cuttings collected in the winter. The University has poplar trees in its orchard. They are a particularly fast growing tree.

 There are no controlled atmosphere storage facilities in this state, only in HP. I asked Dr. Sarma his opinion of pears, or sand pears as he called them. He doesnt seem to think very highly of them, saying the fruit doesnt taste very good. I disagree but the taste of Indian people is your market and obviously more important than my own. Ref. 7 notes that some pear rootstocks are susceptible to pear decline which can severely damage the tree. If the area is known to contain pear decline than P. Pyrifolia or P. Ussuriensis should not be used as rootstock. I dont know what the state of this area is for pear decline but it would be good to check before planting. He showed me a number of their machines. I have chosen four which would could potentially be useful for you: Grater: Apples are washed and fed directly into this machine with no further processing. It produces a grated mass which can be pressed in the hydraulic press to produce apple juice. Approx. 15 000 Rs. It is a very simple machine. Hydraulic Press: Used to squeeze the grated mass to produce apple juice. The grated mass is put into a strong cloth bag then squeezed in the press. The traditional cider press is a screw type design, very much the same as an oil press. A hydraulic press allows more pressure and potentially higher throughput. The apple juice may then be pasteurized and packaged. It can also be made into a concentrate or frozen. Cost of the university machine is approximately 60 000 Rs although I expect you could get or build one for much less. A photograph is below.

Baby Pulper: This simple machine breaks up the apples, separates the seeds and skin from the fruit and produces a pulp. Before being fed into the machine the apples are washed then cut into eights or so and boiled for 10-15 minutes in water. This pulp can then be used for making jam, and many other products. Capacity approximately 80 kg/ hr, price approx. 25 000 Rs. Runs on single phase power. Photo below.

Solar Dehydrator: This looks like a small greenhouse, with a simple wooden frame. One wall has black plastic, the others have clear plastic. I recommend this item. I think drying is a nutritious, low cost way to preserve many fruits and the dehydrator is extremely cheap. Preserving can of course allow you to sell apples directly more easily because you can take your time with distribution. The apples would need to be de-cored and sliced. The equipment for this is minimal; a gloried sharpened pipe is punched through the apple, then a food processor can be used for slicing. They have a potato slicing machine at the PHL which would serve but I think it would be overkill. If you desired a skinless product, in Canada I have seen fairly simple machines for skinning, coring and cutting apples. Photo of dehydrator below.

Extension Ofce The person running the extension ofce was either joking around with me and being very unprofessional and unhelpful. He may be insane. He only badgered me with irrelevant questions, including asking for my identication and basically saying the entire project was absurd without knowing anything about it. He would interrupt me whenever I tried to clarify the situation. Eventually I had to just walk out. I recommend avoiding this ofce entirely. At the University I also spoke to a few other professors and researchers about apples. During discussions I repeatedly asked about compost tea. None of them had any awareness about the technology or Elaine Inghams techniques. Elaine Ingham is a researcher in the UK whose methods have spread to Canada. Some organic orchardists in Canada are very excited about her methods. She has a good website,

named after her concept The Soil Food Web. It is possible that you could introduce her methods to this are if you were interested. I found that the pomologists at the university were in general not particularly interested in organic agriculture from a principled or ecological point of view. Perhaps this is why they havent pursued techniques like those Elaine Ingham has described.

PART 3: FUTURE OF THE PROPERTY

General Observations Some trees produce well, some not at all. The only ones giving apples are near the tents. I suppose these trees were pruned not long ago? I suppose I may have missed some fruiting activity if there are earlier fruiting trees which were nished before I arrived. There are many beautiful birds in the area, and you could look into trying to attract bird watchers. A fair number of fruit trees are being impinged upon by other trees, growing directly under them and literally through their canopy. The shape of the current apple trees indicate that a number of pruning systems were tried. I observed modied leader trees, and central leader but mostly open center pruning. They generally have a medium length stem, under 1 m. There is white clover growing in the ground which is interesting because this plant plays such an important role in Fukuokas techniques. Congress grass, although invading areas outside the farm on the roadside has not made inroads into the farm area. There are a number of tunnels dug throughout the farm, probably by an animal of some sort. They are contributing substantially to collapse of the terraces. The soil is obviously high in brown clay. A soil texture test by the Rapid Feel Method indicates either a clay loam or clay soil. The A horizon is not well developed. The B horizon is quite thick in the areas where I can see the soil prole from eroding terraces. There is substantial damage to many trees, including pines and oaks. I even observed that some were ringed (bark removed in a ring around the trunk) in order to deliberately kill them. There is a spice growing wild in the forest, either wild thyme or marjoram. This suggests that the area would be good to grow that of course. I think plants used for tea or medicine are an economically promising crop and can potentially be grown underneath apple trees. Trespass Related Observations There is substantial grazing and grass removal going on. This is extremely important and has appeared as a theme throughout this document. It is connected to the health of the soil, erosion, tree damage, sanitation and biodiversity. In an organic farming situation the damage to biodiversity from the grazing is perhaps even more important than in a chemical farming situation. As it is much of the plant biodiversity probably resides in the hedge areas where grazers cannot reach. Neighbors seem to consider the property a public piece of land. They graze it, take wood from the pines, export grass and take fruit from it almost as if the property was common property. I think this is really damaging the fertility of the property. This over-use of land is I think is a major trend in India. I have had people come up to the building and say they were just taking a walk in the garden as if it was a public park! It is very strange.

There is much erosion of the terraces. Many places are actively eroding and I could see clearly patches of clay with nothing growing on them. A number of trees are struggling because the ground is washing away from their roots. There are a number of trees perched on the edge of terraces. In the upper property there is a badly eroding area with rivulets forming. The terrace surfaces generally have quite a downwards slope to them, rather than being at. Obviously this means there is a lot of water runoff compared to a at terrace, especially given your relatively impermeable clay soil.

This is an eroding terrace found at your farm.

Above is a stabilized terrace found at the University orchard. Note the thick and rich turf. The state of the turf indicates that there is something wrong with the fertility of the soil. The turf is not thick; you can easily see clay between the grass. The turf is not healthy enough to properly prevent erosion. Much of the water in the rst week came as dew. I expect that during much of the year this is the case. In this case I think it is important to leave the grass to catch dew, rather than cutting it short. There are a number of wild pear trees establishing themselves, which may indicate that this is an ecologically suitable crop for the area. Wild pears have spikes on them that protect them from grazers, which is probably the main reason they are able to grow from seed.

Tree Survey I counted most of the fruit trees on the property except the Scots Pines. The results for major fruit are:

Tree Healthy Apple Standing Dead/Sick/Damaged Apple Peach Pear 200 40 10 15

Number

There are some Kafal trees also, perhaps 8, generally stunted from grazing. There is one Tambru tree which is an intriguing tree. Another oddity is that there seems to be a crabapple tree near the gate. The apples are small and do not taste good but the tree gives many of them. It may have been planted for pollination purposes. There are many areas where apple trees have probably died and left empty spaces. This may have disrupted the planning of the orchard in terms of location of pollinator trees. There is room for quite a few more dwarf or semidwarf trees. The sick/ damaged apple trees are put in a separate category because I think they are damaged enough that they should be cut down instead of trying to restore them. There is a variety of causes that have damaged them. Infected pruning cuts seems to be a major cause. Some are physically damaged by a human or monkey breaking branches and stripping bark. There are some fruit trees on the property that have been used for fodder and are deformed. Most of the oak trees on the property have been stunted by grazing to the point that they have formed small bushes instead of trees. There are a number of young Scots Pines, especially on the lower level, that have been stunted from grazing as well. Someone seems to have cut down some wild roses and placed them around a few trees in a half hearted attempt to protect them from grazers. There is quite a bit of kaalamaas, kilmora, stinging nettle, indian wormwood, wild rose and raspberry growing around the property. As far as perennials are concerned, plants that grazers wont eat have a tremendous advantage so spikey plants tend to dominate. I expect the kaalamaas and wormwood taste bad to grazers. Annual diversity is probably better than perennial since during the rainy season there are many other distracting plants for grazers to eat; individual plants are safer in competition. Discussion, Synthesis And Recommendations In most sustainable projects the key tiers addressed are social, environmental and economic. The key social issue that I see for this project is co-operation with neighbors, overall social vision for the project and distribution of any nal product. Environmentally there is an issue with erosion and potentially with crop selection. Economically, crop selection is also important but post-processing and distribution is also key. Obviously social, environmental and economic factors are all connected but I will try to discuss them with some separation. One of the foremost social issues in my mind is people coming onto the property, overgrazing it and generally using it as if it were public land to feed their animals, collect rewood etc. No normal collection of plants can grow under these conditions. You cannot plant new crops and expect them to become established if people are going to

incessantly cut them down and trample them. Any new trees without a natural defense would quickly become stunted and deformed or killed from grazers. One potential situation is to turn the farm into a social project, perhaps in collaboration with a nearby NGO, for example the Rotoract Club in Rani Chauri. They claim to specialize in rural development, planting fruit trees etc. In my opinion they are a rather colonial organization; maybe you could nd a better one. You could go about restoring the property by pruning, improving the soil by planting grass and clover and see where things go from there. When people come to collect the fruit, instead of guarding it and trying to sell it you could begin to teach people about planting their own trees and how to take care of them, perhaps start a nursery and give away or sell trees. This is more in line with the idea of creating a center of organic farming than an economically protable orchard. It contains a lot more constructive social vision. I like it. It has scope of building the whole area rather than just the area inside your fence. Over time you may be able to convince people to stop bringing their animals here, let the soil develop and you will be able to grow crops beneath the trees as well as plant new trees. The other apparent avenue is to post good signage, talk to neighbors, invest in a fair bit of barbed wire fence and try to keep people out. It is more heavy handed and lacks a certain social vision. I think this wont really work unless there is someone living here willing to eject and ght with people to re-claim your space. You know the people here better than I but I think they will probably cut through any fence unless there is a person here to get rid of them and repair the fence. It is one thing to put up a fences to keep animals out. When the humans feel it is their right to enter, putting up a fence is an overly simplistic solution. Once the area is secure enough to plant new things the fact that people come and take the fruit suggests clearly the idea of a pick your own commercial operation. In Canada this is quite popular. People are invited to the farm to harvest the fruit. They pay by the weight of fruit they bring out. That is, the customer picks their own fruit and takes it. Obviously this has its own challenges as a business model but it does lend itself well to local food distribution, with the many advantages that brings. It is potentially good for a situation where people cant pay much money for the fruit but have time to pick it. As a farmer you have every reason to shorten the supply chain where possible, cutting out extraneous intermediate agents. An explanation of the full logic of local production is more out of the scope of this document but sufce to say it is certainly relevant to small scale farmers. Another choice, once the area is able to grow new things, is to create a project based around residency and self sufciency. Using principles outlined by Bill Mollison under the concept Permaculture the property could become a very interesting example of a functional, beautiful living space. One of the central ideas of Bill Mollisons Permaculture is that a small property, 5 acres is certainly large enough, is able to supply all the needs of a house and do so in an indenitely sustainable manner. Economic crop export is certainly possible and not unlikely but the focus is on creating a sustainable ecologically friendly residence and lifestyle. The trespass issue has a substantial ecological effect. There is a lot of erosion occurring; the turf is not holding together the terraces effectively. I think it is because of biomass removal and soil compression, which is a result of people taking grass, grazing their animals and walking on the land. The soil needs biomass for good health, and that

biomass is currently being removed at an excessive rate. A basic principle of soil health is that the soil microora and fauna eat carbon that normally would come from dead biomass. Both dead and tall living grass in provide a mulch which reduces erosion, conserves soil moisture, lowers soil temperature and provides habitat for new plants and fauna. If the cycle is left to itself or the grass is cut and left, a well aerated soil with thick turf is developed, which checks erosion. If the biomass is removed excessively the cycle is interrupted and the turf disintegrates. This leads to erosion of the soil which further damages fertility. Broadcasting grass and clover seeds may contribute to a technical x for erosion. I am not totally opposed to grazing. Grazing can be a fantastic soil building measure, as illustrated by the soil richness of the Canadian Prairies and the buffalo that used to live there. In the practice of haying biomass is consistently removed from the eld and the soil does not seem to to suffer much; the practice is sustained for many years with no ill effect apparent. However, the intensity and method used on this property seems to be taking a bad toll. Grazing has also checked the normal development of trees on the property and skewed the biodiversity so that only plants which can survive grazers are able to grow. The oak trees are stunted, and have not developed into proper trees. Trees are stunted by human grazing also as people climb trees and cut off branches. The next issue I would like to address is crop selection. Ref. 1 strongly suggests growing crops other than apples, primarily on an ecological basis but also an economic and nutritional one. It suggests instead, Kafal (myrica esculenta) Bhamora (benthamide capitata) Walnut (junglans regia) Chestnut (cestenia sativa) Almond (prunus amygdalus) Kilmora (berberis asiatica) Raspberries (rubus elipticus) Others for oil (wild apricot, native olive, Sal etc.) Because these trees are native to the area they do not pose a problem to the hydrologic cycle, as an invasive species etc. They also are not prone to disease in the same way as apple so it is fairly easy to not use chemicals. They could be planted and develop while the apples live out the rest of their life span. As noted, kilmora, rasberry and kafal are already growing on the property to some extent. Reference 1 is generally opposed to apple growing in the Central Himalaya and states that about 33% of the apple crop is affected by hail, also that the climate is conducive to high rate of fungal disease. In the section devoted to nances it sites a paper saying that some indigenous fruits in the Himalaya are more economically viable than apple (Shah, S.L. 1982. Ecological degradation and future of agriculture in the Himalayas, Indian J. Agri. Econ, 37(1): 1-22). See Appendix 1 for an important socio-environmental portrait that this book presents. If you keep the currently healthy apple trees until the end life of their life span, the restoration of apple trees will probably take approximately three years of successive reconstructive surgery in order to give full crops again. This is the time period suggested in Ref. 2 for restoration of trees that have not been pruned in a number of years and

require heavy restoration. Ref. 2 outlines a basic step by step procedure. The trees will suffer from shock if excessive pruning is performed in one year. You will either need to learn about pruning yourself or hire someone skilled in the job. From my reading, to prune properly is obviously an involved skill. Ref. 2 describes a relatively simple and easy pruning system, called spindlebrush, recommended for the Indian apple growing regions but this isnt the system adopted in your farm and trees cannot be changed over when they are so old. One of the reasons it is recommended is because skilled pruners may be difcult or impossible to nd. Perhaps this situation has changed somewhat in the 17 years since the book was published. Pollination is a very important part of apple production. You should consider keeping bees. In Canada, orchards often keep a species called mason bees. They dont produce honey but are more efcient pollinators because they have fuzzier bodies and perhaps different habits. As you may know, you can also hire bee colonies from the government to come and pollinate your trees. I think that asian pears or sand pears are potentially a good crop. They dont seem to suffer from the same issues with rust and scab and the trees dont have to be pruned. This fruit is recommended a lot by authorities in Canada as a fruit that people should start growing. People at the university here didnt seem particularly enthusiastic about it though. Judging by the zeal which people took them from your farm there must be some demand! Fresh, I enjoyed eating the asian pears perhaps more than the apples. But I have to say some of the pears I collected I threw away because they were bitter. Im not sure why. The apples seemed to develop an improved avor over a few days. This is not uncommon in apples; there are even some storage varieties that have best avor after being stored for months. Summary Grazing and removal of grass, along with the associated erosion and lack of fertility is a major issue. It is damaging the soil and prevents normal cultural practices because plants would be killed, not to mention the fruit taken (if fruit were the only issue a guard could be hired although not at trivial expense). I think you should consider options for this property besides a normal, even organic, commercial apple orchard. I recommend you to read any books by Fukuoka if you are inspired by the idea of farming in natures image. His key books are available at the Navdanya ofce. To create a project in which someone will live on the farm in a sustainable manner the author Bill Mollison and his Permaculture philosophy is highly relevant. If you do start commercial production, local consumption can be a strong nancial and ecological advantage. There is an ecology professor at D.B. Pantnagar who, through his book, recommends to grow something else entirely besides apples. From reading the book it is clear that he would favor organic apple production over conventional production. However, chemical contamination aside there are also other reasons that he recommends against apple production. He argues that other crops can be more ecologically friendly, socially relevant and economic. The orchard has many damaged and missing trees. There is room for much planting of new trees although replant disease may be an issue. There are

approximately 200 trees on the property that could be brought back into apple production. Reconstructive pruning would take approximately three years to bring many of these trees back to full production, provided a skilled pruner can be found. The pollination situation should be checked to ensure good production. Contacts Mahipal Researcher, orchards P.B. Pantnagar University, Hill Campus, mobile: 09997419447. Mahipal introduced me to many people. Dr. S.K. Sarma Head of Post Harvest Laboratory, P.B. Pantnagar University, Hill Campus. T.R. Chauhan Government processing unit for making apple juice. O: 01792-23251 R: 01792-23215 Plant Manager, Parwanoo - 173220 Distt. Solam (H.P.) Ajay Chadha Government processing unit for making paper apple boxes. Agro Industrial Packaging INdia Ltd. Nigam Vihar, Shimla, 171001 HP, India Works: Pragati Nagar, Kotkhai, Shimla, HP, 01783253295 Dr. SP Uniyal Dr. Vinod Sharma Dr. Lalit Bhatt Are all professors very interested in organic vegetable growing (Vegetable Department, D.B. Pantnagar hill campus). I didnt actually visit them. Indore Biotech Inputs and Research Limited Is a company I just want to point out. I visited their facility in Indore, M.P. They are helping organic farmers with pest control mostly. They have a good product line but perhaps more importantly encourage farmers to learn about the biology of the soil themselves and adopt some techniques which they have outlined. References 1. Ecological Impact of Apple Cultivation In the Himalayas, Dr. Vir Singh, International Book Distributors, 1991. 2. Apples - Production Technology and Economics, S.M. Kanwar, Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Co Ltd., New Delhi, 1987. 3. The Natural Way of Farming, Masanobu Fukuoka, Japan Publications Inc., 1985. Available online by donation from www.soilandhealth.org.

4. 5. 6.

7.

How to Grow More Vegetables Than You Ever Imagined on Less Land Than You Ever Thought Possible, John Jeavons, publisher and date unknown. An Agricultural Testament, Sir Albert Howard, date and publisher unknown. Available by donation from www.soilandhealth.org. Conversion to Organic Agriculture, A.K. Singh, International Book Distribution Co, Lucknow, 2007. I didnt reference this book much because I only came across it later on. But it has a lot of good information in it, including much information on becoming organically certied in India. Plant Propagation, Principles and Practice, H.T. Hartman, D.D. Kester, University of California at Davis, Prentice Hall of India, New Delhi, 1986.

Appendix 1: Apple Belt Casting a Dark Shadow

From Ref. 1, Apple Belt Casting a Dark Shadow The life of the hill people is closely related to the natural forests. With the destruction of natural forests, the life- supporting base of hill villages is seriously eroded. In the Tehri Gharwal district of Central Himalaya, it can be clearly seen how a costly horticulture development programme (sic) which involved the prior destruction of natural oak forests contributed only to the misery of ordinary people. This is the story of common people in qite distant villages and how they are affected as a consequence of hte destruction of forest cover to create a belt of fruit (apple) and vegetable cultivation mainly for well-to-do, often absentee farmers. A forested area of about 5000 acres between Chamba and Mussourie in the Tehri Garhwal district was earmarked for creating apple belt in the early sixties. Mixed dense oak forests were destroyed, apple saplings planted and the apple belt came into existence in June 1965 when it was formally inaugurated by late Mrs. Sucheta Kripalani, the then Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. The area soon bloomed with apple plants by mid-seventies. Each year more and more forest areas were replaced with apple orchards. The oak forests, now replaced by apple trees, had provided the orogin of about a dozen of rivulets (tributaries of the Ganga) and a much larger number of springs and other water sources. But most of these have dried up or considerably thinned following the clearfelling of forests. Kafalpani region is located at the bottom of the eastern slope of apple belt. While this area emerged on the map of the regions supplying apples for cities, the local villagers lost their highly cherished, wild growing, freely available kafal fruit. In addition,a serious shortage of even fuel, fodder and water has emerged following the destruction of natural forests. Till a few years back the elds of Kirgini village were well irrigated by the Kirgini rivulet which also provided drinking water for the villagers and their animals. But this rivulet has almost dried up now. Till 1970 (ve years after the creation of the belt) most farmers were able to meet their subsistence needs on food grain and were even able to sell some grain in the market. But now not a single family is able to produce enough grain to meet the familys needs for even half the year. Soil erosion, shortage of natural fertilizers of decaying leaves and shortage of irrigation -- all directly related to the destruction of natural forests -- have caused this decline of agriculture. Shortage of fodder has resulted in the diminished ability of villages to maintain domestic animals, as manifest in the fast decreasing number of domestic animals. At present, in Kirgini village, there are only 40 buffaloes, 10 pairs of bullocks and ve cows, for 100 families. Shortage of bullocks has seriously impaired agricultural and eld work. Speaking of earlier days before the destruction of natural forests, local people say that when Kafalpani was covered with the greenery of oaks and kafals, a single family could keep up to 10 buffaloes, 20 cows and two or four pairs of bullocks. There

was plenty of milk. Now there is hardly any milk or ghee even for children. Malnutrition is evident on the faces of several villagers. In the north-west of Kirgini is located Dang village. This village also used to be a center of knowledge about medicinal plants which grew in the mixed natural forest. But the destruction of forests has dealt a heavy blow to these plants as well as the survival of this knowledge. In the entire Kafalpani region, there is a serious shortage of food, water, fodder, fuel and people are driven to the plains below to earn their living. People point to the apples growing above their village and explain how these have eroded the base of their life and livelihood. This is the story of an area located some distance away, villagers living closer have suffered even more. But in the ofcial jargon, this areas development has taken a big step forward with the implementation of the apple orchards. If the present trends continue leading to the drying up or considerable thinning of Jijli and Henwal rivulets -- the rivers having their origin in the fruit belt -- the life and livelihood of a much larger number of people will be seriously threatened.

Appendix 2: Seed Germination Tests

I bought a number of seeds for planting on the property. Many of them I am taking with me. For the seeds I left behind, the germination tests were as follows: Peas: 23/26 or 88% in 10 days. Emergence was lower. These seeds were purchased from a store in Chamba which had big bags of peas outside it. They were quite cheap, I think 27 rupees for 500g. This could be a good plant to roll into seedballs and distribute around the property. Better emergence may have been obtained if the peas had colder weather to germinate in (plant earlier). Hybrid Corn: 8/11 in 7 days.