Article written by Madeline Wimmer, UMN Extension Fruit Production Educator
Organic fruit production comes with a number of challenges in the Midwest as frequent spring rains and humid conditions increase disease pressure. This is in addition to the basic challenges fruit growers face, including extreme cold winter temperatures, as well as spring frosts, which led to crop loss in various regions this past year.
The Organic Fruit Growers Association (OFGA) is dedicated to supporting new and established fruit growers adopt organic management practices. The organization focuses on research and education, which has led to recent developments like the Organic Apple Orchard Academy that launched this past winter with its first cohort.
One key part of OFGA includes the organization of field days to visit farms primarily in Minnesota and Wisconsin, but this summer, two field days widened out into SW Michigan to include two apple orchards: Third Leaf Farm and Earth First Farms, located near Grand Rapids, MI. This week’s article highlights some of the practices of the first farm we toured, Third Leaf Farm.
Third Leaf Farm (Greenville, MI)
Third Leaf Farm is a third-generation apple orchard that has more recently transitioned to focusing on regenerative organic farming practices. Kyle Rasch is the orchard director and currently works with his two brothers, Devin Rasch and Eric Rasch who focus on a variety of orchard management tasks from trellis construction to beekeeping on the farm.
Image: Third Leaf Farm has partnered with GoGo Squeez and is certified regenerative organic.
Their orchard consists of 100 acres of multiple apple varieties, primarily on high density rootstocks that are trellised. Some of the varieties they grow are commonly found in Minnesota orchards, including Honeycrisp and SweeTango, while also growing a number that are compatible with Michigan’s climate, but not hardy enough to grow in Minnesota, including Golden Delicious and Fuji.
You might be asking what regenerative organic farming means, a standard that is still getting defined in some ways, but goes beyond common management by investing in the future to create a sustainable vision that is long-lasting.
Regenerative Organic Certified is an actual addition to the USDA Organic Certification program. It can include a focus on orchard biodiversity through cover cropping, variety selection, and orchard layout, and often maintains practices that improve soil properties. In addition to these values, social fairness and animal welfare are included, in which the inclusion of livestock in orchard settings is still being worked on to ensure food safety goals are also met.
Variety highlight: Kissabel Rouge
Image: These Kissabel Rouge apples are covered in kaolin clay (Surround) and won’t be ready for harvest until mid-September or October on Third Leaf Farm.
One variety highlighted during the field day was Kissabel Rouge, a red fleshed variety with flavors described as hints of red berries and a crisp texture. Kissabel is a series of apples originally bred in France and is currently licensed through the IFORED international breeding consortium, which focuses on red fleshed apples. It includes the rouge with a deep red flesh, Kissabel Orange, which has a lighter skin color and orange-like tones, and Kissabel Jaune, which leaves toward pink-colored flesh and can have partially yellow-skin.
Possibly due to its European origin, information about its hardiness is not widely available online, but it is more likely to fare best in moderately hardy zones (Zone 5 or warmer), especially because it was reported to be a mid-late season variety in Michigan.
Machinery highlight: Tractor-attached orchard mower and hedger
Images: Third Leaf Farm uses an orchard mower with a tree sensor to maintain vegetation within the aisles without disrupting the soil or using herbicides. On the front of the tractor is a hedger that can summer-prune their high density trees.
Ground vegetation management can take some creativity for an organic orchard as there are only a few herbicides available under Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI), which happen to be contact herbicides that are most effective on younger vegetation.
I’ve covered organic methods for weed management through an online webinar delivered in 2023 for anyone who wants to take an academic deep dive. I also highlighted the practices of covercropping with Bocking comfrey last year, which is a focus point for Alternative Roots Farm, an organic cider orchard located in southern Minnesota. Orchard tillage is another form of organic management that can keep a clear strip under the tree row, but also disrupts the soil.
At Third Leaf Farm, in addition to ground covers, staff members use an orchard mower to maintain vegetation in the aisles and under the rows. There are a number of different orchard mower designs with a key aspect being the tree sensor, which allows the mower to move around trees without damage. As a mower moves through an orchard, it adds back some amount of green organic matter (lower carbon-to-nitrogen ratio) back to the soil.
Kyle mentioned that this particular mower design has been prone to breaking, bearing in mind their orchard is around 100 acres. Repairs included the belt, hydraulic cylinder, hydraulic hoses, and the tree sensing rod at various times.
They also utilize an orchard hedger for summer-pruning, which is done after the summer solstice when the shoot terminals have set, and will run it through the orchard during winter as a part of their dormant pruning program.
Infrastructure highlight: Concrete posts/pillars
Images: Using concrete posts is one way to follow the USDA Organic regulation against using treated wooden posts.
Organic agriculture prohibits the use of wooden posts treated with compounds like creosote, pentachlorophenol (PCP), and chromated copper arsenate (CCA). Some growers will alternatively use metal posts, or wooden posts that are more naturally rot-resistant (e.g., black locust), but even these wooden posts will likely need to be replaced at some point.
One alternative that is gaining some attention and is used at Third Leaf Farm are posts made of steel enforced concrete. There are a few different suppliers that currently make these posts, and this topic was discussed at the 2025 Marbleseed conference during the Organic Fruit Intensive session where David Bonhoff, a retired University of Wisconsin faculty member discussed his process of purchasing and personally constructing concrete posts.
Their longevity and strength is a great benefit to being an alternative to wooden posts, while other aspects like securing brackets can be a challenge. The freight cost for delivering posts is also one of the larger expenses to consider before purchasing.
Third Leaf Farm was able to secure brackets onto their end posts and tied the posts back using a drive-in trellis anchor. They’ve been installing a few rows of concrete posts to trial them, while a number of their end posts were also wooden, some of which were grand-fathered in when they transitioned into organic certification.
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