Fruit trees

[West5757]

I recently bought a farm and around the house there are quite a few fruit trees. Eight apples large enough to produce, three peach with one large enough to produce, two pear trees and a fig tree.
My question is what do I need to do to keep them healthy? I really don't want to spray them but I also don't want ruined fruit hanging on the trees.
Also, I have heard that when they begin producing fruit I need to thin them. Most of the apple trees are too large to reach the tops even with the picker. How do I go about this?

I know I have a lot to learn but if someone could point me in the right direction I would really a appreciate it.

[Old Vet]

You need to prune the trees in the fall. But in the mean time you could spray them with a fungicide. To do this effectively you want a leaf blower with a spray jet in the end of it. Start the leaf blower and then spray the trees with it.

[West5757]

My wife is not a fan of spraying. Is there an organic fungicide available?



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[Steve in PA]

Originally Posted by West5757

My wife is not a fan of spraying. Is there an organic fungicide available?



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Neem Oil. Also Serenade but I don't know if that is for trees. There are others as well but I don't know if they are approriate at this time for your trees (lime/sulfur spray)

PS. There is a Garden and Plant Propagation section on this website and you'll probably get more responses there than this section.

[Badger]

You can thin the upper limbs by just shaking. You may have to do it a few times over a few months but if you don't thin the fruit it gets too heavy and it will break dowm the limbs. Apples, peaches and pears are heavy enough to consistantly break limbs.
Some orchards prop limbs but most thin the fruit. You'll get larger and juicier fruit as well. If you're going to raise fruit trees you need to get over your fear of spraying, or you'll get no fruit. Contact your local extention office and ask for a fact sheet for spray schedules for home orchard that is specific to your area.

[West5757]

Thank you all so much. I should've looked for the plant section! I'm new to this forum and a border line idiot anyway.

I would like to spray... I have a buddy I work with that does a "chemical thinning" on his trees and says it works great. My wife is not in line with idea yet. I know last year before bought the farm the fruit was good but it ugly. There were definitely too many apples hanging up there.
Thank you guys again.


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[secuono]

My MIL has apple and pear trees, she never sprays them and there's tons of apples that are perfect every year. So I'd say don't spray and see if it's even needed.

[West5757]

The guy that owned the place before us never did anything to the trees from what the neighbors tell me. Like I said, most of the fruit was fine but there were clusters of apples that I'm sure would've looked a lot better had they had room to grow. They also had brown spots on them. We are them anyway.


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[Old Vet]

A real good fungicide will cure the brown spots on the apples and peaches. A fungicide is not a poison and will not hurt the fruit. Their are many fungicides but the ones that are organic but I don't know the names of them.

[geo in mi]

Here's a good place to start: your cooperative extension agent: here's a map that you can look up the agent office for your county: http://www.csrees.usda.gov/Extension/

Then, read this: http://www2.ca.uky.edu/agc/pubs/ho/ho104/ho104.pdf

It is about as a complete information resource that you can want..., and your county agent will probably make reference to it. This guide also lists specific references to alternative, non-chemical methods to use for insects and fungus.

Hope this will help you get started.

geo

[oneraddad]

I share my fruit, I eat the part the bugs don't. There seems to be enough for everybody.

[Use Less]

Your cooperative extension person can be very helpful in this.

[JoePa]

Get a Gardens Alive catalog or get on the internet GardensAlive.com - they have all kinds of organic sprays for just about anything - I've been using them for years and they work - also just google pruning apple trees or what other trees you have and you can find out how to do it right -, .

[MNBobcat]

Spray guide

[Elffriend]

For guides to pruning and thinning, go to youtube and look for videos done by Stephen Hayes. I didn't have any experience with pruning apples. I watched his videos a couple of times and did what he did. This is my 4th or 5th year with apples and I feel fairly confident now, thanks to Mr. Hayes.

[Grandmotherbear]

In colonial days fruittrees were "sooted:. " Ashes were blown onto them shortly after fruit set and again about 6 weeks later.
There are clay (kaolin) sprays you can use if you are having worm problems.
Neem is a great fungicide, and in a stronger formulation, great insecticide. It degrades rapidly tho.
Fruit trees generally like neutral soil and dislike lots of nitrogen. They appreciate well rotted manure, potassium, minors, and bone meal.
Thinning is probably most important for a good fruit size. Also we have discovered fruit trees like bare feet. Our grass is very aggressive abd GFB was able to induce a low chill apricot I had decided was dead a year ago to put out leaves just by clearing a foot around the trunk to bare soil. I am going to try to extend those to 3 ft around.
If you're not trying to sell it you really don't have to spray a lot. What do you care what it looks like so long as its adible?

[Andy Nonymous]

2011, 2012, we got nearly no apples or pears. Not because we don't spray (we don't), but because of late frosts. Last year was a bumper crop of tree fruits - more than we could deal with, and most of it just beautiful (with no sprays of any kind). Spraying tends to disrupt more than just a problem cycle - it seems to disrupt the things that help keep a problem in check, making spraying even more necessary the next year, and the next, and the next... Why, if you ever stopped, you'd see such problems that you'd never ever stop spraying again!

We have lots of wild apples around too, and have discovered that some are just prone to collecting worms, 'soot', scab and other problems - these become firewood. Some others are highly resistant. Variety makes a huge difference. The Liberty apple, developed by Cornell about 20 years ago, is resistant to a number of apple diseases, and produces a tasty and relatively good keeping apple.

It may not be too late to prune - most folks around here do so in Feb or March, but I just passed a place today that the apple trees had just been pruned hard, but they haven't budded out here yet either. I did some apple grafting a couple days ago.

Allowing hogs to run an orchard after harvest has been proven to substantially reduce insect problems the following year, as they eat the drops and interrupt the re-infestation cycle. For me, it's a matter of working with nature, rather than working against it.

[blooba]

Originally Posted by secuono

My MIL has apple and pear trees, she never sprays them and there's tons of apples that are perfect every year. So I'd say don't spray and see if it's even needed.

If you are secluded with no other fruit trees around you there is a chance you can get away with not spraying if you have a healthy variety. If you have other apple trees within a few miles you will almost always have to spray. Always pickup the fruit on the ground also, that causes alot of it.

[ronbre]

permaculturalists believe that you are best to NOT prune trees, but to let them grow naturally..if you have diseased, dead, dying or crossing limbs, prune those out as they are going to cause damage.

you can get organic pest controls..like red and yellow sticky traps and organic oils that you can use for spraying if you want to use them, but I find that my fruit is generally fine without spraying..

if you begin to see problems then try to use natural or organic protection if you need it...

best thing you can do for your fruit trees is not grow grass under them..a good book to read on how to grow properly under fruit trees is Gaia's Garden by Toby Hemenway...i like the 2nd edition.

You can plant dynamic accumulators ..mulch plants...insectaries to bring in beneficial insects and pollinators...etc..read some good permaculture books or forest garden books to get best info (google them or go to ) www.permies.com and then scroll down to sections that will answer your questions

[West5757]

Thank you all for the advice...it's nice to know that spraying is not a necessity for my fruit trees. I think I'll keep and eye on them this year and document what they do. In the meantime I'm going to pick up more info.