Using AGGRAND: Apple Orchards Thrive with AGGRAND Fertilizers

Growing with AGGRAND

Using AGGRAND: Apple Orchards Thrive with AGGRAND Fertilizers

If you ask David Chung what he does to make his apple trees so healthy and the fruit crisp, juicy and sweet, his cryptic answer is, “It’s the fishy.”

Chung is the owner of Johna’s Orchard, a family business in Tehachapi, Calif., a city in the mountains outside of Bakersfield.

“Farmers don’t share their secret ingredients with each other,” Chung said.

He grows and sells 10 varieties of Fuji apples. “Each kind has a great taste,” Chung said.

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The secret to his success? AGGRAND Natural Organic Liquid Fertilizer 4-3-3 and Natural Kelp and Sulfate of Potash 0-0-8. Chung has been using AGGRAND products since the early 1990s. The products were recommended by his friend’s grandfather, another orchard grower who had been using AGGRAND for years. The friend became an AGGRAND Dealer and Chung started using AGGRAND and found it to be the best fertilizer for his orchards. “Immediately we noticed a world of difference,” he said.

Johna’s Orchards has been in business since 1978 and became organically certified in 1998.

“It wasn’t easy to get our organic certification when we couldn’t prove that AGGRAND was organic,” Chung said. “Two years ago we couldn’t use it because the regulations were becoming more strict.”

AGGRAND ingredients always have been recognized as organic, said AGGRAND Manager Greg Sawyer. However, AGGRAND recently received official approval as organic material from the Washington State Department of Agriculture.

“It makes it much easier. I’m glad AGGRAND got the certification,” Chung said. “One thing is for sure, we are convinced that AGGRAND has the best effect and we won’t give it up ever. And the service is great too.”

Chung said monthly spraying begins in the spring and continues until September or October. He compares his trees to the same kind of trees in the orchard next to his.

“Within the first month our leaves are greener, healthier, fresher looking than the trees next door,” Chung said. “The quantity is about the same, but the quality is much better. It’s the taste and color – our apples are crispy with lots of flavor, and they’re juicy. Our apples have more taste than any other apples in the world.”

Johna’s Orchards customers have been exclusively organic food sellers in the past. “They would call every year and ask us to supply them,” Chung said.

Now the apples are sold at farmer’s markets as well. “Our apples are the tastiest at the farmer’s markets too.”