Tips on Growing Organic Plums

People of today’s generation are becoming more and more health conscious. Because of this, there is an increasing clamor for healthier and cleaner food options. The interest in the organic production of different food and produce has lead to more and more supermarkets that are offering products, such as organic fruits, which are free of chemicals as alternate options to the conventional non-organic ones.

Growing organic fruits, such as plums, is now in vogue since it does not only protect the environment from harmful chemical sprays, it also gives the small farms a chance to market their organic produce at competitive prices in supermarkets and specialty food stores.

In order for plums to be truly organic, these three basic principles in should be followed; (1) the use of readily soluble mineral fertilizers is not allowed; (2) herbicides are not to be used; and (3) the spraying of synthetic chemical pesticides is not allowed.  Strictly following these three principles would not be easy but is certainly possible. The following will serve as a mini guide on growing organic plums.

Plums are difficult to produce even with a full chemical spray schedule. Therefore, it may prove more difficult if they are to be grown in an organic way. Nevertheless, organic growing of plums can be possible with proper management, good resistant varieties, and a good site location and preparation.
Site location is important when starting an organic plum orchard. If the site is located in an area which has longer dry days than wet, then it is well suited for growing plums organically. Drier areas would mean that there is lower incidence and severity of plum diseases and insect pests. The occurrence of the infection of diseases may also be prevented by selecting varieties which are already resistant to a number of known peach diseases.

In handling weeds, organic plum growers incorporate a number of methods such as mechanical weeding (by hand) or using cover crops. Pest control for growing organic plums may be done using a number of orchard management practices. Removing and cleaning up the decaying fruits that fall to the ground is one way of preventing the occurrence of insect pests. Also keeping beneficial insects around the orchard is a natural and organic way of getting rid of plum pests.