Mating disruption is used to control codling moth throughout the orchard. In the conventional rows, weeds have been controlled with an herbicide strip. Since then, only Round-up has been used, and it has an herbicide strip like the conventional rows. In the organic rows, the orchardist used a wood-chip mulch the first year and then laid a woven polypropylene fabric in the tree rows the following year. Andrews said the fabric is only three feet wide, whereas the herbicide strip is six feet wide.
Any place there is a hole or a gap in the cloth, the weeds or grass grow through.
They also grow from the edges of the cloth back over the fabric. Another limitation is that when mowers are used in the alleys, they can catch the edge of the cloth and chew it up. The grower has decided to abandon the cloth and will rely on cultivation in the future to maintain a weed-free strip. In the conventional rows, the grower applied a calcium nitrate fertilizer and a foliar micronutrient spray. In the organic rows, he used chicken manure to apply 80 pounds of nitrogen per acre.