EarthDance Permaculture Orchard Project Factsheet

About EarthDance Youtube, or take a tour! Orchard Beginnings EarthDance Organic Farm School is a non- profit organization combining food In the fall 2014 and spring of 2015 production, agroecology education, and EarthDance began planting pear trees with the community development. EarthDance help of a SARE Farmer/Rancher grant. In its manages mixed vegetable, fruit, and livestock grant application EarthDance outlined a plan production on our 14 acre historic farm in to plant a sixty tree pear orchard. Following a Ferguson, Missouri, in a residential area in a period of continued research and reflection, close suburb of St. Louis while engaging all EarthDance staf decided that planting a single ages in programs on sustainable living, area of the farm to only pear trees was not in farming, and gardening. line with the princiiples of organic farming or permaculture, such as”integrate rather than Our farm site is designed with permaculture segregate” and “value diversity”. With those principles at the core. We have six acres in ideas in mind, Farm Managers Matt Lebon and cultivation, hightunnels and a greenhouse, a Monica Pless decided to integrate the pear 250+ tree mixed perennial orchard planted trees into a much larger plan for establishing on berms and swales with annual crops alley- a diversity of tree crops planted cropped between, along with pastured throughout the farm. poultry, mushrooms, herbs, cut flowers, pasture, prairie, and mixed woodlot. How EarthDance Trees Were Uniquely To learn more about EarthDance please visit Planted us on the web at www.earthdancefarms.org, find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Before laying out the trees, EarthDance farmers established a system of swales and pear- pawpaw- pawpaw- pear- tart cherry- berms. A keyline design was utilized to pear- plum- pear- pawpaw- pawpaw- site the swales. Keyline design is a juneberry- apple technique for maximizing beneficial use of water resourceson a piece of land. The Variety Selection keyline refers to a specific topographic feature linked to water flow. Trees were A lengthy research process informed not only planted into berms, which were mounded the selection of the mentioned species but on the lower side of each corresponding also the specific varieties. swale. EarthDance chose Asian and European Earthdance fruit trees were alley cropped varietals for crop diversity and market appeal. throughout the growing fields in parallel Asian pears were primarily Shinko and rows 80ft apart. Alley Cropping is the Korean Giant(Olympic). These varieties were planting of rows of trees at wide spacings chosen due to their superior resistance to with an annual crop grown in the alleyways fireblight and also their marketability. between the rows. Plans to grow Additional varieties of Shinseiki and Chojuro vegetables in the 75ft alleys will continue were added to increase pollen diversity and for the next several years. As the trees for their distinct flavor. grow larger in size, the alleys will be The European pears were primarily Maxine, narrowed. Potomac, Magness, Seckle, and Blake’s Pride. Similar to the Asian pears, these To manage weeds around the trees, a heavy varieties were duty landscape fabric was laid on top of berms selected first and around trees, after the trees were planted. for their high While this method proved efective at resistance to minimizing weed pressure, it made for fireblight and challenging cultivation next to the landscape for their fabric. To mitigate this pressure we marketability. recommend that a low growing perennial be planted alongside the landscape fabric. Pawpaws Presently, EarthDance cannot confidently round out recommend a suitable plant for achieving this EarthDance’s end. polyculture orchard. Several other tree species, all well adapted for Pawpaws, known for being the largest fruit organic production, were added to the pears in native to north america, have seen little order to create a diverse polyculture of tree attention from the farming community. Many fruits. Those various trees were put in a may be familiar with pawpaws growing in the repeating sequence so as to support the wild, which produce sparse and low yields. pollination needs of the trees and most However, there are numerous cultivars that efectively mitigate the spread of pests and produce reliably and heavily. Both the disease. Missouri Center for Agroforestry and Kentucky State University have published long term The EarthDance sequence is: research about the promise of pawpaws. These studies demonstrate the pawpaw’s promise as an organic tree fruit. As a native tree, they have shown minimal pressure from Tree Sources pests and disease. Thus, roughly sixty pawpaws were planted at EarthDance as a specialty crop for farmers market and Adams County Nursery restaurants.

The additional species of Juneberry, Tart Stark Brothers Cherry, Plum and Apple were chosen for their promise as potential organic fruit tree options as well. Much research was put into each Burnt Ridge Raintree variety with a focus on disease resistance. Juneberries were selected as they are a native One Green World with several named cultivars and produce sweet berries. Tart cherry and plum varieties were chosen for their early fruiting traits-- the hope being that they produce fruit prior the heavy disease pressure. Lastly, although Sources: apples are susceptible to numerous pests and diseases, the most resistant varieties were chosen: Liberty, Enterprise, Florina, Guy Ames, fruit specialist at ATTRA Pristine, Arkansas Black, and William's (https://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/ Pride. summaries/summary.php?pub=2)

Many thanks to NCR-SARE for their support Mark Shepard- New Forest Farm. (Book: of EarthDance’s poly-culture permaculture Restoration Agriculture) inspired orchard. Stefan Sobkowiak- Miracle Farms. (Documentary Video- The Permaculture Orchard)