Fruit tree maintenance ????

[Jordan Selsor]

So Im doing my best to plant lower maintenance fruit trees b/c I seriously dont see myself doing much as far a spraying regiment goes. Some of the trees I know are kind of finicky such as honey crisp and barlett. My question is
Will I see success with my fruit trees if I only pruned annually and only spray with seven a couple times per yr??? By "success" I mean a long lived tree that produces fruit fairly consistently. I water regularly, control the weed competition and have protective cages on all my trees.

Fruit trees planted include
apples-liberty, enterprise, arkansas black, goldrush, honey crisp, an dolgo
Pears- Keifer, Ms. Laneen, moonglow, Senator Clark, Orient, an Barlett

 

[CrazyEd]

I do very little spraying and I saw my first fruit in 2014 on a bunch of my trees that were 3 years old. I am more of a reactive sprayer. I monitor my trees and if i see issues with pests (like tent caterpillars) I spray. It's not the best approach, but I have very limited time so I spray only as needed or as time permits. Be careful spraying sevin once your trees start to produce fruit, read the label accordingly as I believe that stuff will thin your fruit significantly.

 

[BJE80]

I posted awhile back (might of been on QDMA) I think about if any spraying needed to be done annually and the consensus was you only spray if you need to on a reaction basis. Am I missing something or am I remembering wrong.

 

[Turkey Creek]

So Im doing my best to plant lower maintenance fruit trees b/c I seriously dont see myself doing much as far a spraying regiment goes. Some of the trees I know are kind of finicky such as honey crisp and barlett. My question is
Will I see success with my fruit trees if I only pruned annually and only spray with seven a couple times per yr??? By "success" I mean a long lived tree that produces fruit fairly consistently. I water regularly, control the weed competition and have protective cages on all my trees.

Fruit trees planted include
apples-liberty, enterprise, arkansas black, goldrush, honey crisp, an dolgo
Pears- Keifer, Ms. Laneen, moonglow, Senator Clark, Orient, an Barlett

I would say yes. If you monitor for insect invasions and spray accordingly you should be well on your way to seeing fruit.

 

[SmallChunk]

Great question. I do as the others have said, just watch and spray only if needed!

 

[aerospacefarmer]

If you spray only when you see issues you can have real problems but if that is what you have time for then spraying reactively is better than none. If you don't spray for insects then the biggest issue is ugly fruit and some rotten fruit but diseases will get to the tree and could harm it significantly. Its a time vs dollar trade off but that's the decisions we must make

 

[BJE80]

If you spray only when you see issues you can have real problems but if that is what you have time for then spraying reactively is better than none

Ok what should I be spraying and when?

 

[aerospacefarmer]

I think a simple spray program of captan and imidan every 10 to 14 days would be a great help it gets more confusing and complicated beyond that but that is for more perfect fruit and for good looking fruit to sell

 

[BJE80]

I think a simple spray program of captan and imidan every 10 to 14 days would be a great help it gets more confusing and complicated beyond that but that is for more perfect fruit and for good looking fruit to sell

When do I start spraying? Just when the tree has fruited? Or at green up? I can't spray every two weeks. Maybe every 2-3 weeks.

 

[aerospacefarmer]

You will start the captan first as soon as late april depending on the weather in your area You will start the Imidan later when the bugs start coming out but you cant spray when your blossoms are out with the imidan because it will harm the bees. So you need to wait until petal fall and then every 2 weeks after that unless you get over 2 inches of rain then should do after that amount of rain the proceed with the 2 week interval. It really is more complicated than that but for simple spraying that is the best way to think about it. If you look at some posts or do some research on spray programs you can get more details. If you bought a fruit guide book from Penn State of Rutgers for about 40 bucks you can gain a whole lot of info that would be super beneficial. They have one for the back yard orchard guy and one for fruit production. Either is fine but the production guide goes way overboard for doing apple trees for deer purposes. if you cant do 2 weeks then every 3 weeks will have to do. Just hope you get lucky and are spraying when the biggest threat is in the orchard. Its like insurance you hope you have it when its needed :)

http://extension.psu.edu/plants/gardening/fphg this is the one for home gardener this one is 12 bucks plus shipping

http://extension.psu.edu/plants/tree-fruit/tfpg here is the fruit tree production guide this one is 35 plus shipping

 

[Bowsnbucks]

I just picked up the Penn State book for home gardeners / fruit growers. $12. It's not as " tech-y " as the one for commercial orchards. Def. worth the $12.

 

[aerospacefarmer]

for anyone who doesn't want to spend the $12 Rutgers has their guide online and you can download it and then print it on your home printer. Its a pdf file and is the fruit tree production version (commercial) and is as good as the Penn State Guide!! Here is the link to the pdf download and its 234 pages and includes all kind of fruit trees not just apples

http://njaes.rutgers.edu/pubs/publication.asp?pid=E002

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Not sparring with Aero here, but just for info purposes, the Penn State book is about all kinds of fruit trees, berries, grapes, currants, - even kiwi. It is way more than just apples. Soil prep and maintenance, sprays, fertilizer, pruning, etc. Either source would be good.

 

[aerospacefarmer]

Yes they are both very similar. I didn't think you were sparring lol

 

[sandbur]

Some say that crab apples are lower maintenance.

I am not an expert at all, but I do like the crab apples. I only sprayed my crab apples during the first few years when aphids were bad. I don't mind less than perfect apples and am not selling them.

Chestnut crabs is a favorite. So is dolgo. A couple of other crab apples need no spraying, especially if you are growing them for deer.

Last year I planted a Nova Easy Gro, which I think is supposed to be low maintenance..

Gophers are a bigger problem for me!

 

[Native Hunter]

Some say that crab apples are lower maintenance.

I am not an expert at all, but I do like the crab apples. I only sprayed my crab apples during the first few years when aphids were bad. I don't mind less than perfect apples and am not selling them.

Chestnut crabs is a favorite. So is dolgo. A couple of other crab apples need no spraying, especially if you are growing them for deer.

Last year I planted a Nova Easy Gro, which I think is supposed to be low maintenance..

Gophers are a bigger problem for me!

Basketball Gophers or Football Gophers...Just kidding....

I'm not an expert either, but crabapples so far have seemed easier than apples to me.

 

[sandbur]

Using mostly crabs, and having a good apple year, I think Stuart and I have found crabs to feed the deer for 7 months. We have some scion, but the trees are scattered over central Minnesota, not all on one place. YET!

 

[Jordan Selsor]

dolgo's an a couple clearance ornamentals are the only crabs I have. I want to be able to eat most of what I grow. I'm trying to migrate more toward pear planting for lower maitenance yet still edible.
I have heard dolgos taste great. Are their any other crabs that taste desent? I'm grafting some Yates from Thunter. That's a small Apple. Not sure if it's a crab though?

 

[aerospacefarmer]

dolgo's an a couple clearance ornamentals are the only crabs I have. I want to be able to eat most of what I grow. I'm trying to migrate more toward pear planting for lower maitenance yet still edible.
I have heard dolgos taste great. Are their any other crabs that taste desent? I'm grafting some Yates from Thunter. That's a small Apple. Not sure if it's a crab though?

Chestnut, Kerr and Anaros are also very good tasting with Kerr having the most pucker factor but very good and hang late. All great crabs

 

[greyphase]

Dolgos make an exceptional jam. Centennial is a wonderful tasting crab.