The Biodynamic Orchard Book

by Ehrenfried E. Pfeiffer, Michael Maltas

Overview

Brings together the best advice for cultivating fruit trees using biodynamic methods, by two leading experts.

This book brings together the best advice for cultivating fruit trees, berries and shrubs using biodynamic methods, with the aim of harvesting healthy fruit free of pesticides.

Ehrenfried Pfeiffer discusses the principles of tree biology before describing the measures that can be taken to develop a pest-free orchard without the use of chemicals, including soil preparation, the selection of trees for planting, issues of transplanting and pruning, the application of pastes, green cover crops, and pest control.

Michael Maltas ran fruit tree experiments on his biodynamic farm in Missouri for four years. The results are recorded in a highly practical annual spraying schedule for orchards, which is reproduced in this book. A month-by-month calendar gives information on specific methods and controls, based on Maltas's extensive experience.

This is an invaluable book with practical advice on all aspects of planning and maintaining a healthy orchard.

This is a thoroughly revised and updated combined edition of Biodynamic Treatment of Fruit Trees, Berries and Shrubs by Ehrenfried Pfeiffer and Orchard Pest Management and Spray Schedule by Michael Maltas.

Published in association with the Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Association of North America.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781782500018
Publisher:	Floris Books
Publication date:	09/15/2013
Pages:	104
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Ehrenfried Pfeiffer (1899-1961) was born in Munich. He visited the USA several times in the 1930s, was awarded a doctorate for his groundbreaking Sensitive Crystallisation theory as a blood test for detecting cancer, and emigrated there in 1940. He pioneered biodynamic agriculture in the USA and helped found the Biodynamic Farming & Gardening Association. He died in Spring Valley, New York.

Michael Maltas was born in Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia) in 1950. He studied science at Cape Town University, and then biodynamics at Emerson College in the UK. He moved to the USA and managed a biodynamic dairy farm in Missouri where he set up experiments to measure the effects of biodynamics on fruit trees. He later worked at the Fetzer vineyards in California. He still designs biodynamic gardens, and lives in Ukiah, California.

Table of Contents

Publishers' Note 8

Fruit Trees, Berries and Shrubs Ehrenfried Pfeiffer 9

Preparation of the soil for tree planting 10

Planting 12

The relationship between root stock and graft 13

Transplanting 17

Pruning 18

Tree care 19

Tree washing with 500 and Equisetum tea (Step 4) 21

Tree paste application (Step 5) 22

Organic sprays with no lasting residual effects (Step 6) 24

Biological control (Step 7) 26

Biodynamic preparation 501 (Step 8) 28

Fertilisation of an orchard 28

Planting distances 31

Trace minerals 32

Green manuring and cover crops 34

Pollination of blossoms 38

Mixed culture instead of monoculture 38

The crown and the root system 40

Plant diseases 41

Berries 44

Orchard Pest Management Michael Maltas 47

Introduction 47

Read this first! 48

Some warnings 51

Suggested Schedule 52

January - February 52

March 53

March-April 55

April-May 58

May-June 64

June-July 66

August 69

September 70

October 71

November-December 72

Mammal Control 74

Deer 74

Rabbits 74

Voles 75

Formulas, Recipes, Chemicals 77

Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) 77

Bleach 77

Biodynamic preparations 77

Borer spray 1 from A.P. Thompson 77

Borer spray 2 from Hugh Williams 78

Bordeaux mixture 78

Botanicals 80

Burgundy mixture 81

Copper compounds 81

Diatomaceous earth (kieselguhr) 83

Dormant oil 83

Dormant sprays 84

Equisetum/diatomaceous earth aphid spray 84

Equisetum tea or decoction 508 84

Lime sulfur 85

Nasturtium wooly apple aphid spray from Hugh Williams 86

Nosema locustae 86

Petal-fall spray 86

Pheromone and other insect traps 87

Potassium permanganate 88

Prebloom spray 88

Safer's soap 89

Seaweed 89

Summer cover spray 89

Streptomycin 89

Sulfur compounds 89

Sulfur sprays 91

Summer cover spray 92

Tangle foot or tangle trap 92

Third cover spray 93

Tobacco dust 93

Tree paste 93

Tree paste spray 94

Appendix 96

Bloom sequence calendar 96

Weight and liquid conversion 98

Bibliography 100

Biodynamic Associations 102

Index 103