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With our commitment to Organic production, we employ and develop many new and innovative management techniques to help us cope with the challenges of Mother Nature throughout the year. To better manage our farms, we have formed four main management complexes averaging 725 acres per complex. We feel this allows us to better manage varietal mixes, harvest maturity, labor needs, and team management based practices for more efficient farming, while providing steady labor for our employees and their families.

Caring for our Crops

Not only does Dovex grow the staple Red Delicious Apples, Granny Smith Apples and Golden Delicious Apples but we have also expanded to planting newly released apple varieties such as Cosmic Crisps Apples and Piñata Apples.

Our 400-500 seasonal employees and 120 year-round employees help us care for our crops.

We have integrated Platforms for Pruning, Thinning, and Harvest to assist our employees and increase production. Among those platforms we have also introduced automated hedgers for pruning.

Water Conservation

Dovex has put into place programs to protect our natural resources, like water.Here’s a few ways we conserve water:

  • Automated valves to easily control orchard irrigation from an in-house computer system.
  • A system to be able to determine which orchard blocks need more water and which have received enough. This allows for the perfect amount of water to be used and to prevent any waste.
  • Soil moisture probes for water management and allows trees and their roots to receive the right amount of water.
  • Integrated new technology to assist with orchard monitoring such as irrigation and weather. Weather stations on the orchards record temperature, wind, rain, humidity, frost, dew point, and send any weather alerts to cell phones for up-to-date monitoring at all times.
  • Auto starts on our wind machines to help with frost protection and helps protect the trees during the winter.

Protecting Our Soil

Dovex is committed to creating and maintaining healthier soils within every farming practice implemented. We do this by:

  • No synthetic substances
  • Utilizing Earth worms to make the soil richer around them
  • Integrated beneficial pollination plants in orchard rows  such as red & white clover to establish a healthy environment for beneficial insects
  • Integrated pest management with beneficial insects such as lady beetles and lacewings to manage pests in and around the orchards