Caring for fruit trees

I have apple, pear, peach, and apricot trees and have never learned how to take care of them. We still get fruit from them, but not near as much as we would if we sprayed them, and took proper care of them. most of the fruit ends up on the ground, and get's chopped up by the lawnmower. What do you guys spray them with and how often in order to keep the insects away?
Some day we might want all of that fruit and it would be great to know how to maximize the fruit crop. I do not have much time so I'm hoping there is just something I can spray on them and just wait for the fruit!

spray them for what? Do you have any insect problems with them? If so, what kind of vermin?

The best way to keep fruit trees producing and healthy is yearly prunning..............

all water shoots, shoots from the root stock, branches that are injured, branches that cross over others and rub, etc.cut em off! :)

here is a good read................. http://akeejaho.hubpages.com/hub/How...rsh-Chemicals_

Darkevs we get little black bug holes in the apples, and peaches that have to be from insects. I have always heard that you have to spray fruit trees, but maybe I am wrong. but I do know that something is biting my apples and peaches!
The pears seem to do better but they get some bug bites as well!

I'll dig out my book on fruit trees and bugs that bother them and get back to you. :)

sure it is not birds pecking them?

ok, still not positive what your vermin is............. have a look at these images and tell me if it is what your black holes in the fruit look like............
http://www.google.ca/search?q=codlin...w=1280&bih=595

Also be sure to thin the fruit. I know for peaches, there should only be one fruit about every 4".

Here's a list of articles from U of I extension service. These should help you.

http://urbanext.illinois.edu/apples/growing.cfm

I had cherry trees for a while and never sprayed them. I did cover them with netting when the cherries ripened to keep the birds out.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Darkevs

ok, still not positive what your vermin is............. have a look at these images and tell me if it is what your black holes in the fruit look like............
http://www.google.ca/search?q=codlin...w=1280&bih=595

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They look like the codling moth bite! It looks like 7 spray and moth traps are what I need!

Thanks Darkevs, your'e the best!

We have pear,peach,fig and persimon trees here. As I don't like to spray anything on my fruit and veggies that I wouldn't drink I don't spray at all. Yes I get a few spots on the fruit but not so many that much of it is ruined. Our biggest problem is birds not bugs. GS mentioned thinning peaches. I'm all for that. Not doing it last year cost us a nice blood peach tree. Had so many fuits on it it broke down some of it's best branches. Btw the mulberries are ripe. Got most of a gallon away for the birds so far. Makes really good jelly.

Oldtrap

Quote:

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Some day we might want all of that fruit

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Some day you may not have access to spray. Sevin kills bees too.

I never spray either. Like Rick I net the cherry trees and the blueberries. The apples have chives and egyptian onions planted around them. The sticky redball traps usually work pretty good too. BUT I put those in the ornamental crab apple to lure the bugs away from the real apples.

Someone told me once that a fairly religious drenching of the roots with a garlic drench will keep codling moth away. Might keep everything else away too. Wonder if the apples taste of garlic?

A lot of it is proper pruning and thinning.

I just got some dormant oil spray for my apple trees. It's not a poison and will take care of some insects and scale by smothering them

I don't spray my trees really, maybe some neem oil, that is it. Who cares about spots on my apples? I'm not going for supermarket glossy, bug marks never hurt anyone.

Really misshapen fruits can be turned into sauce or cider or canned or jams or jellies, even ones found on the ground so long as they aren't rotted.

I do, however, prune, you need to. Both to maximize growth, and prevent injuries to the tree (where a branch gets too overloaded with fruit and breaks).

I'd have to agree with the more organic approach. Often times without intensive training in an integrated pest management (IPM) program, you'll do more harm than good attempting to control insects with pesticides. Killing the beneficial insects which allows the harmful ones to swell in numbers. If you had a large scale commercial orchard, you would need to incorporate some type IPM program because of the scale. In a small family plot with only a few trees your better off with a regimen of dormant oil, pruning during dormancy, thinning, and possibly bracing/supports for heavier crops like pears. Some fruit trees require minimum chill-hours and pollinators to produce so check with your local extension office for recommendations suitable for your area.

Here's a link to a page with many common fruit varieties with links to specific information on each from Texas A&M Department of Horticulture:

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/l...fruit_nut.html

FREE on-line resource with info on pruning & disease identification with plenty of photos and illustrations.

I just wrote a lot, and the blasted web-page crashed yet again. This is the only site it happens on. If it were my browser or computer, it would happen elsewhere, also, and I would say it's necessary to upgrade my browser or something, but it doesn't happen anywhere else.
Short version of what I just spent 10 minutes typing, only for it to disappear: Get a local beekeeper to set bees in your orchard, and you will have more fruit to choose from, but you will not be able to use sprays while the bees are present.

Highlight your work, right click your mouse and select Copy. I do it often no matter what site I'm on or what browser I'm using. You can also hit CTRL S to save your work but that will save it to a file on the hard drive. The Copy command stores it in volatile memory and won't take up space on the hard drive.

Yes I do that on every site when typing a lot, it is a habit now. CTRL-A (highlight all), CTRL-C (copy). Then I hit enter. You never know.

This site is monitored and server uptime has been 100% for weeks. Not exactly sure what is happening for you.

If you forget to tick the Remember Me box you will get dropped after it times out. Typing doesn't reset the timer. You have to change pages. You can type for 15 minutes then hit enter and it will drop you completely out of the forum. You'll have to log back in. If that's what happened, you probably forget to tick the box.

Oh well. I'll just get used to copying before hitting "Post". maybe i can remember to copy.. I'm kinda forgetful. What was I doing again?

just did it again. A little yellow box comes up at the bottom and says: Wilderness-survival.net is not responding. Recover webpage?
Then a little box comes up that says Windows is checking for a solution to the problem.
Then the page reloads and I lose my typing..

Sorry, I didn't mean to hijack the thread.

The information is very interesting. I like the post. Thank you, this advice will come in handy. It made me understand something, and it is that I never knew before.

please dont medicate without proper diagnosis. I have seen way too many folks hosing down their plants with noxious crap over the years with no idea what they were actually trying to control. Pics speak a thousand words in a thread like this, I have years of experience in the landscape biz and am happy to help if I can.

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