Orchard Consultations

with Michael Phillips

Michael offers several ways for folks to get direct advice about their own orcharding efforts. You can choose literally to "walk" through an entire growing season with me via ongoing chats and emailed reports, always aimed at increasing your understanding of what it takes to produce a commercial crop of health-providing apples. Some people value a homestead visit as essential to their apple growing future. Others just want a good chunk of time on the phone to get important questions answered. And occasionally, someone in the "regional neighborhood" simply wants to see pruning done right.

Commercial Apple Consultation

Apple growers with a bearing orchard -- as well as small-scale farmers adding tree fruit to a diversified crop mix -- can contract with Michael for a year-long consultation. We'll discuss planting layout, rootstock and variety choices, organic transition issues, insights into understory & soil health, and integrated pest strategies in a first lengthy conversation. Having soil test results and spray records from past seasons available beforehand can be a big help.

A site visit can be arranged at additional cost, if such is desired and it suits my travel schedule. Often, a few photographs and directed questions are sufficient to introduce me properly to your site. Fine-tuning insect and disease dynamics for a specific locale is a big part of the commercial package. Equally important is exploring how the scale of a fruit growing operation ties into community market potential. You will also receive detailed topic reports, customized to meet the chosen circumstances of your situation, be that a certified organic perspective or strong desires to better emphasize system health in an existing IPM program. Then, throughout a full growing season, you can phone and email Michael to answer all those nuance questions that inevitably arise.

A Commercial Apple Consultation ($750 for the first year) includes a substantial "introductory visit" (be it by phone or in person), a comprehensive orchard management plan for the season to come, 'What's Ahead' emails that outline imminent management decisions, detailed topic reports, the latest edition of The Apple Grower, season long availability of Michael to ask those deeper questions, and a 'Season Review' to analyze lessons learned and further refine management insights. Subsequent years can be added to this package at a cost of $500 per year. Our mutual goal will always be to grow healthy fruit for your community!

Homesteading Consultation

Folks new to orcharding can get experienced mentoring from the get go. Michael will look at planting options that best fit the ecosystem where you live on a scheduled site visit. Pruning technique can be demonstrated if trees are already in the ground. You'll receive a comprehensive set of recommendations that will fit the time you envision having available for orcharding. Sound advice on cultivars, rootstocks, and especially soil fertility needs can make a big difference in the home orchard.

A Homesteading Consultation ($400 plus travel expenses) includes one site visit, orchard layout recommendations, a detailed task checklist for your specific location and pest challenges, feedback on any questions that your personal orchard report generates, and the latest edition of The Apple Grower.

Introducing the
Orchard Calling Card

Some growers simply need dedicated phone time with an experienced holistic orchardist. You can now purchase an Orchard Calling Card ($100) to arrange for 100 minutes of Michael's undivided attention. Some people easily go the distance in a single phone call. Others have opted for detailed email answers to arising questions. This economical option suits growers from further away who need to zero in on orcharding nuance.

Apple Doctorin'

Pruning apple trees is one of the rites of spring. Michael provides a custom pruning service within a ninety mile radius of Lost Nation Orchard for people who want professional work done on their trees. Feel free to ask "anything apple" as pertains to the health of your trees while the pruning gets done. This service costs a flat $48 per hour, including travel time.

Lost Nation Apple Intensive

This "organic apple everything" weekend at the farm around bloom time with Michael inspires people to pursue their own orchard dreams. Come gain the practical insights needed to establish your own fruit planting based on the biological systems approach used here at Lost Nation Orchard. Details about this yearly orcharding class can be found by clicking that blue link!