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Orchards established on weathered, acidic mineral soils in the Ozark Highlands must be managed to meet tree nutritional requirements. However, a common characteristic of Ozark Highland soils is a relatively low soil organic matter (SOM) concentration, a condition that can have detrimental effects on orchard productivity. Organic orchard management poses specific challenges to managing competitive under-tree vegetation and supplying appropriate supplemental nutrition to maintain tree growth and cropping. In Mar. 2006, an experimental apple orchard was established to evaluate the effects of under tree, in-row groundcover management system (i.e., shredded paper, wood chips, municipal green compost, and mow-blow), and nutrient source (i.e., non-fertilized control, composted poultry litter, and pelletized organic commercial fertilizer) on SOM, carbon (C), and nitrogen (N) concentration, and soil C and N sequestration over time in an organically managed orchard in the Ozark Highlands region of northwest Arkansas. Soil organic matter, total C, and total N concentrations (soil weight basis) and contents (area basis) in the top 7.5 cm increased in all groundcover management systems from 2006 to 2011. The greatest differences were observed with municipal green compost treatments. Significant interactions between groundcover management treatment and nutrient source were only observed for SOM concentration, whereas nutrient source did not affect total C and total N concentrations or contents. Soil C sequestration rates were 0.9, 1.0, and 2.8 Mg·ha⁻¹ per year under the shredded paper, wood chip, and green compost treatments, respectively, whereas total C content did not change over time under the mow-blow treatment. The green compost treatment was the only treatment that had significant total N sequestration occur (0.25 Mg nitrogen/ha/year). Results of this study indicate that organic cultural methods can significantly augment near-surface soil C and N contents, which will likely increase productivity, of apple orchards in the Ozark Highlands over a relatively short period time after establishment. This study has implications for orchards in similar soils or environmental circumstance and for both organic and conventional management systems.

A multidisciplinary effort has been initiated between the University of Arkansas and the National Center for Appropriate Technology to identify production barriers, research and outreach needs, and market opportunities for sustainable and organic fruit in the Southern region. The goals of the project are to identify barriers of the organic system through focus group meetings with producers, processors and marketers, and to develop regional research and outreach projects to overcome these obstacles. Market development, organic fertilizer knowledge and organic pest management have been identified as areas that need research and outreach activities. Long-term outcomes are expected to increase sustainable and organic fruit production, provide opportunities for growers and consumers, and encourage local economic development in the Southern region.

Fruit production in the Southern region has declined in the last several decades. Further, although certified organic fruit production has increased significantly in other regions of the US in the past decade, there has been very little growth of that industry in this region. It is presumed that the lack of production is based upon the lack of research, out-reach, and science-based information available to growers which make organic production possible. Based on planning grant funding from the Southern IPM Center program and the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program a Southern Organic Fruit Working Group is being formed. The projects are collaborative efforts of horticulturists, entomologists, plant pathologists, soil scientists, and agricultural economists in Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. In each state, a coordinator is hosting stake-holder focus groups of producers, marketers, processors, extension workers, consultants, organic certifiers, etc. The purpose of focus group meetings is to identify challenges and opportunities in production and marketing organic fruit, especially apples, blackberries, blueberries, and peaches, in the Southern Region. Coordinators are combining findings from state focus group meetings to establish priorities for research and outreach to support organic production, and will work collaborative to addresses those priorities. Because of the similarity in climate, geography and demographics of growers and markets among the states of the region, this is a project best addressed as a regionally collaborative effort.

The highly weathered, mineral, and often eroded and acidic soils of the Ozark Highlands region of northwest Arkansas generally have low soil organic matter (SOM) concentrations as a result of rapid organic matter turnover rates in the warm, moist climate. Orchard management practices that can improve SOM may also improve other soil quality-related variables for sustained production, which is an explicit goal for the National Organic Program (NOP). Therefore, beginning in Mar. 2006 and continuing for seven seasons, annual applications of municipal green compost, shredded office paper, wood chips, and mow-blow grass mulch groundcover management systems (GMS) in combination with composted poultry litter, commercial organic fertilizer, or a non-fertilized control as a nutrient source were implemented to evaluate their ability to alter near-surface soil quality in a newly established, organically managed apple orchard in the Ozark Highlands region of northwest Arkansas. The SOM concentration in the top 10 cm averaged 1.5% across all treatments at orchard establishment in 2006, but by 2012, SOM concentration had increased in all GMS and more than doubled to 5.6% under green compost. Similarly, soil bulk density in the top 6 cm, which averaged 1.34 g·cm⁻³ among treatment combinations in 2006, decreased in all GMS by 2012. Either green compost or shredded paper had the largest concentration of total water-stable aggregates across all aggregate size classes in the top 7.5 cm, whereas no differences among GMS were observed in the 7.5- to 15-cm soil depth. Green compost applied alone or in combination with commercial fertilizer had the largest estimated plant-available water (17.9% v/v) among all treatment combinations. Many soil quality-related variables measured in the various organic GMS had numerically greater values compared with an adjacent conventionally managed orchard on the same soils. Implementation of these GMS appears to provide apple producers in the Ozark Highlands and similar regions a tangible means of meeting NOP requirements for improving soil quality concurrent with production of certified organic crops. The findings also have implications for conventionally managed orchards, which have maintaining or improving soil quality as a management goal.