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Curtis Orchard
3902 S. Duncan Rd.
Champaign, IL 61822

Mon - Sat
11:00 am - 5:30 pm
Sunday
11:00 am - 5:00 pm

Phone: (217) 359-5565

Orchard Opens
July 20th - Dec. 16th

Is Curtis Orchard Organic?

     Not quite, but we are as close to organic as possible for our climate region.  While we would love to grow our crops organically, research at universities throughout the Midwest has shown that the high humidity in this region makes production without fungicides impossible.  On top of that, the lack of a natural predator for the infamous codling moth (whose larvae is the classic apple worm) makes some spraying for that pest necessary as well.

     The good news is that technologies developed in recent years allows us to greatly reduce our pesticide usage compared to 15 years ago.  These Integrated Pest Management (IPM) methods enable us to monitor conditions in the orchard & pumpkin patch so that we only apply sprays when necessary, and we only target the pests that represent a threat.  Many of these new techniques have been developed in our own backyard at the University of Illinois.  We work closely with scientists there to provide them with a real world lab to see if new methods work.  At the same time, this relationship puts us in the favorable position of being one of the first orchards in the nation to have access to many improved technologies.

     For example, we've been using temperature and leaf wetness monitors for many years now to record temperature changes and leaf wetness data every 15 minutes throughout the season.  This data, along with weather forecasts, is routinely downloaded to our computers where insect and disease models predict the development of those pests.  This information is coupled with information collected by scouting the orchard and monitoring pheromone-infused insect traps to tell us specifically when to spray for an insect or disease.

     The other major advancement in orchard technology comes from the chemistry of pesticides.  Researchers are developing much more selective pesticides that do not harm beneficial insects as readily, and are much more environmentally benign.  For instance, in 2006, our leaf wetness study enabled us to skip five fungicide sprays, and our methods of preserving predatory mite populations within the orchard allowed us to mark our 9th year of production without the use of a miticide.

     For your benefit & ours, as well as for the environment, we will continue to partner with the university community to make our fruit and vegetable production the safest it can possibly be.  Like you, we are concerned about the environment and about food safety.  After all, our families live on the farm and consume more of our products than anyone else, so it makes sense for us to produce our fruits & vegetables as safely as possible.

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Curtis Orchard