21 Apple Trees, a Lake, and My Conscience

[webbmeister]

Gempler\'s: An Efficient Bunch

Eat it? I know it is one of the inerts in aspirin and cosmetics, but eat it? Hmmm.

Here's an update:

I ordered a backpack sprayer and protective stuff from Gemplers. The timeline looks like this:

Saturday: Order online
Monday: Notified products shipped
Wednesday: Products on doorstep.

I'm impressed.

Jim

 

[ljh2]

I know that Kaolin is the primary active ingredient in the Kaopectate (tm) anti-diarhea medicine.

Larry

 

[webbmeister]

I always knew that apples regularly got worms; but, REGULAR WORMS???



Jim

 

[ejb]

I would first figure out what you plan to do with the trees...we grow ours (about 15 plus plum and a couple of pear trees) completely organic...i.e. we don't spray *anything* on them.

There is no chance in heck that any of my apples will end up in the local supermarket, but if you eat around the imperfections, they are just as tasty (maybe twice as tasty because you know it is all apple and *no* chemicals).

Even my kids eat them like crazy all season long.

This approach works even better if you plan on making apple pies/apple sauce etc where no one sees what the apples looked like...my wife and kids made dozens of tasty treats from our apples, and again, nothing in there to worry about.

We do keep them pruned in order to allow for plenty of airflow and sunshine to encourage healthy growth.

Something to think about...if you do end up spraying, figure out how much that is going to cost you (checmicals, sprayers etc) and then figure out how many apples you can buy at the farmstand for that same amount of money...at least by me, apples are cheap 'cause there are plenty of large growers around.

Good luck.