Orchard People Fruit Tree Care Education

In my opinion, as a formally trained educator, this is an excellent course. It provides an overall view as well as covering the basics of the Integrated Pest Management approach to growing fruit trees. In each unit of the four sections, the instructor provided essential and relevant information, supported by research and always illustrated with quality slides, props, links and mini- videos. Short tests and application exercises completed the approach. In summary, the course is well-designed, well-paced, visually pleasing, practical and enjoyable. I now feel confident to proceed with IPM in the coming Spring, having acquired a solid base of knowledge and techniques. I only wished I had known earlier about the courses offered by Orchard People. Thank you Susan.

Sue, I loved your IPM course. I savored every module. During the course I would take pages & pages of notes, the next day off I would go into my orchard and scout problems and, boy, do I have them. My orchard is on the northeast side of a steep hill. I have three tiers about 150' long x 15' (+ -) wide. The first tier has 4 rows of grapes, second has about 30 different apple trees and the third has peaches, plums, and pears. The orchard is about 10 years old. Things were pretty good up until a few years ago. Some of the apple trees were too tall and a few fell over. Most of the fruit trees have disease & pest problems. That is when I turned to the internet. I thought the "bigger the better." So first I trimmed all the trees 50% - I know that is a lot of pruning but they really needed it. Then I found Orchard People. It took me a while to start the class but when I did I loved it and hated it. Now I know my orchard has every pest, direct and indirect, fungal and bacterial. But now I have a game plan starting this winter with copper and dormant oil & in early spring from silver tip to fruit set. I made traps for peach tree borers, bought sticky traps , apple maggot balls, glue, and have my scouting kit ready for pest war. Thank you MIchael Giamo Cedar Grove, NJ

Not an "observational" course in which participants simply receive content, this class involves detailed research and development of personal resources to amplify and integrate the learning materials. The result is a useful "toolbox" - literally, intellectually, and experientially. Accessible, helpful, and motivating. Wonderful.

As always, Susan has given me what I need to know in a concise format. Along with her expertise, she includes practical exercises that get you out to your trees to see what's going on. She offers outside reference links to keep you learning as well. I'll be signing up for any new courses she offers!

Excellent course. Assignments encouraged exploration of local resources. I wish we had the option of downloading the slides at the end of the course (I say end because not having them right away means taking notes and absorbing the info more, but I would like some cleaner/fuller ref for future refreshers).

This course has provided me with a confident knowledge to look at the pests that have and will come each season and make an intelligent decision on whether to use an organic or chemical solution to combat it and best of all I have several new online resources thanks to Susan to get help in photos and text to identify those darn pests. If you want to win the battle I highly suggest you take this IPM course.

The IPM course is working for me. At about half way through my biggest take away thus far is how to do research. The volume of information out there is huge and I appreciate your course focuses on presenting the student with the tools to figure out problems as they arise. For example.. referencing an insect pest to a time of year and type of damage rather than memorizing every possible bug that may cause a problem. I'm quickly catching on to the similarities in the habits of flies, moths and wasps. Much of this course is useful for IPM beyond just fruit trees.

Cours accessible et permet de prendre connaissance de plusieurs sources d'information. très pertinent. (Accessible course and allows you to learn about several sources of information. very relevant.)

course was very well put together, loads of information

Thank you for all the in-depth information and links to the OMAFRA PDF on all sprays listed for use! Also The Holistic Orchard is EXCELLENT! Right up my alley!!!!!!!! Additional Webinar link was so great!