Fruit Nurseries Incorporate Sustainability

In this year’s Nursery Report, we asked several of the nation’s leading nurseries how they were incorporating sustainability into your business.

Phil Baugher, Adams County Nursery, Aspers, PA: Sustainability is a difficult question to answer. We have grown trees using integrated pest management practices for many years. We have also practiced crop rotation to avoid build up of insect and disease pressure. We have recently converted entirely to trickle irrigation to reduce water usage and the high costs associated with water delivery systems. Next season we will incorporate fertigation into our trickle system to avoid excess use of nitrogen fertilizer.

Dennis Tarry, Dave Wilson Nursery, Hickman, CA: We have been incorporating sustainability here at Dave Wilson Nursery by relying more on composts, manures, and cover crops for our nutrient needs. We are also working closely with our pest control advisor to select low impact insecticides and herbicides when possible. Additionally, we are evaluating the possibility of using some agricultural byproducts as a component in our fertility program and we are evaluating the possibility of dedicating some unused land for a photovoltaic array to supply the power we need for irrigating our crops.

Todd Snyder, C&O Nursery, Wenatchee, WA: Being a family business (now 102 years old), we have the needed processes detailed such as “buy/sells,” training our younger generation with the needed skills needed to continue with the business, putting the younger folks in key development positions within the company, etc.

John Ireland, Fowler Nurseries, Newcastle, CA: The intensity of farming performed by nurseries has necessitated the use of practices which are now lumped under the buzz word “sustainability.” If we had not been good stewards of our land, we would have moved off our land decades ago. We have been farming nursery stock on the same land since 1912, by making use of crop rotation, green manure, turkey manure, and compost application. We maintain significant portions of our property in a natural, uncultivated state, which we think helps to maintain a healthy ecosystem.

Tom Burchell, Burchell Nursery, Oakdale, CA: We rotate our crops on the land every year so we are able to sustain a high level of production. We have done that since we started the business in 1942. We apply fertilizers directly to the roots by banding or directly to the plants through foliar applications to minimize run off or ground water contamination.