When to Spray Fruit Trees
- Woman Portraying Eve Picking Apple
Within the context of modern history, actually spraying fruit trees as a means of preventing bugs and disease has only been recorded for the past 100 years. Cloth sacks were filled with dry mixtures to shake over the branches of fruit trees. Wet pastes were made to paint on the branches with brushes. Spray nozzles were invented to shoot water-based formulas into the fruit trees. Adding an engine to power the spray was marketed in the early twentieth century. From there, the design became more and more powerful with the use of jet engines and fans until the spray was covering more than just the orchards. Since then, the design of spraying machines has been balanced to cover only the area desired. - Heavy Crop of Peaches
Knowing when to spray your fruit trees is critical.There are cycles that pests like worms, moths and spiders grow through. As they change from one morph to another, different chemicals affect them in different ways. If you are just a few days off on spraying, certain pests may already have laid eggs in your fruit trees and will continue to grow in the safety of the fruit. However, as you learn to treat the fruit tree in the right schedule, in combination with good soil, heat and water, you will find yourself with a bumper crop of fruit. - Apple Tree Blossom
Educating yourself about the growth cycles of your fruit tree and the pests that can bother it is very crucial to the success of your fruit tree. Your local county extension should be able to give you a print-out of specific directions for your kind of fruit, whether it be apple, peach, plum or any other kind of fruit. Generally, the spraying is done starting at bud stage. Just as the buds begin to swell, the first application of oil and lime sulfur spray is given to kill any wintering eggs or fungus spores. An insecticide is applied when the blooms are almost ready to open and then a fungicide is introduced when in full blossom. Insecticides are sprayed for the remainder of the season every two weeks until two weeks before harvest. - Apple Tree Codling Moth
The whole reason behind spraying fruit trees is to produce a better quality and quantity of fruit. Anyone who has tried to harvest fruit from a tree without any care being given to it, finds out that the fruit is usually mostly inedible. Apples are filled with worms that do make it to harvest time and even then they are malformed and dwarfed. Plums and peaches fall early and whole crops can be wasted. A fruit tree is enjoyed by bugs, animals and humans, so if you do not want to do anything to it, you can expect the bugs and animals to get most of the harvest. On the other hand, if you take a little care and follow the regime of bug control and disease control, you should have enough of a harvest for yourself and your neighbors. - Chickens Under Apple Tree
Growing fruit trees organically is always an alternative to using synthetic chemicals on your landscape trees. With everyone trying to clean up the environment, there is a lot of information on natural oils and fungicides that will not harm the soil or water. Oil emulsions can be made with dish soap, vegetable oil and other ingredients. Beneficial insects can be encouraged by planting spefiic flowers close by. If you have a farm setting and can raise chickens, having the chickens scratch and peck under the apple tree will control some bugs as well as add fertilizer to the soil. Check the link below for a chart of organic pesticides and their applications.
