Sustainable Farming Practices

INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT

Since 1947, Brantview has been apart of an Integrated Pest Management system. This consists of a weekly inspection and count of every insect and pest that may cause harm to our orchard. We know what pests to expect during the growing season, and monitor them accordingly. We work on a population threshold level, and each pest has its own level. If is passes its own threshold, we control the pest. If the population stays under its threshold, we hold off in the hope that the target pest will become beneficial predator later in the season.

A good example of this is the Mullein Bug. This pest flies early in the growing season and will sting the young fruit-lets leaving a small rusted spot on the skin. In most cases, the fruit will grow around the sting and the apple will be put into juice because the shape isn’t quite right. This pest later in the season will help control more direct pests such as apple maggot.

We are also using alternate methods to control apple pests. We have twist ties that are impregnated with female pheromone of the Oriental Fruit Moth. These ties are placed in the trees and the pheromone is released over the growing season. The male OFM flies into the orchard in search of the female only to find a twist tie. He either dies or leaves, thus ending the life cycle of the destructive pest.

We hope you learned something new on the production of our produce, we try our best to refrain from spraying with pesticides and other harmful chemicals. Our crop and have been successfully under the bottom 5% in the province for pesticide use, including organic apple production.

Visit Ontario's Ministry of Agriculture for detailed information on the IPM program.