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UK: Tackling the challenges of organic fruit and viticulture

The workshop "Tackling the challenges of organic fruit and viticulture" held at the Organic Research Centre on 27 January aimed to look at some of the challenges that face the organic fruit and viticulture sector in the UK and some potential solutions.

Changes and learning in orchards or vineyard systems are usually happening much slower than for example in field vegetables. Therefore, strategic planning and longer term perspectives are even more important in these systems. Martin Soble from Whitethorn Farm explained what he would do differently if starting over again with his orchard. He would, for example, choose more resistant cultivars because if they are susceptible to disease they are going to die, or prune more and earlier.

Will Davenport from Davenport Vineyards highlighted that long-term planning is crucial. For the wine sector, however, he stated that the choice of cultivar is much more dependent on taste and market demand rather than disease resistance. For him, weed control is the largest problem. Particularly in the growing season, the area underneath the grape and vine growth needs to be kept free of high weeds to improve air flow and reduce the risk of fungal diseases.

Lucius Tamm from the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) in Switzerland reported back from the recently finished EU-funded Co-Free project. The participants were eagerly awaiting his take on the results of the project, aiming to find alternatives to the use of copper. According to Lucius, there are now 4 highly promising products identified for the use in practice, and he added that in his over 20 years of research in this area, he has never seen so many promising solutions. Among these are not only new plant treatment products, which will take at least another 5 years to come on the market, but also a very useful decision support tool. This tool will, for example, assist in identifying periods in the growing season where it is not necessary to spray copper anymore because the fungus is in a development stage where it does not pose any relevant risks for yield or quality. Thus, the tool significantly reduces treatments throughout the year.

Key conclusions

The discussion that followed the presentations brought out the following points:

  • Take great care in choosing suitable cultivars depending on resistance needs and especially market demand.
  • Increase biodiversity in the orchard and vineyard, support beneficial insects and predators.
  • Use low growing ground cover and green manures within the rows (e.g. white clover) to ensure optimal air flow underneath and between trees and vine stocks, and to increase soil fertility.
  • An option to manage weeds around the trunks of newly planted orchards is the use of a roller. Not cutting the grass, but breaking it/bending it over, so regrowth is not initiated.
  • Some already available alternative products to copper were discussed in the group (e.g garlic extract (which is expensive) or Serenade (Bacillus subtilis)), but highly varying results were reported and no conclusions could be found.

Further information

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