Anybody Spray Apple Trees?

HillStreet · May 21, 2018

I bought 8 acres of a former orchard and built a house. I am in the process of restoring the orchard, which had been idle for 15 years. I severely pruned about 25 trees that are closest to the house. I began spraying them this year with dormant oil, fruit tree spray, and captan. The trees are now in petal fall and it seems the trees are budding nicely. I should know in a few weeks if the apples will be okay. The severe pruning did not seem to harm the trees. I do not know if it is more important to prune, or to spray. I can tweak the pruning next year.

I have also removed about 25 trees with the stumps. I replanted the area with 60 dwarf apple trees this spring and most seem to be coming along just fine.

I need to improve my skills in identifying herbicide issues or insect issues. I can spray to eliminate any and all problems but that may just spray chemicals that I don稚 need to be spraying. The university extension is very helpful by publishing bugs and diseases that have been found in the area, but that doesn稚 mean I have them.

What do you folks do with your fruit trees. Thank You.

oosik · May 21, 2018

I had 18 semi-dwarf apple trees - about six varieties. They were all planted - when we moved here in '82. I took the last of them out two days ago. I sprayed for aphids and leaf curl( I think that's what it was). Didn't have to spray every year. Biggest problem, by FAR, pocket gophers. It took 46 plantings to finally get 18 to survive pocket gophers. In the day I would dig a huge hole - line it with two inches of broken glass - then good soil and the young tree. I don't know if it was prior to "gopher cages" or they just hadn't reached our area yet. What a PITA - we would get a normal wind out of the SW and three or four of our young trees would lean and fall down. Root eaten clean - back to the main trunk.

I'm cleaning out the orchard area and going to replant two early transparent apple trees. I will be using the gopher cages and if they get big enough ( gophers won't bother after about the fourth year ) two will be more than enough apples for just me.

GLyford · May 21, 2018

If you are already following the Extension guidelines, that is the best advice I could give you.

As to whether or not to treat, you could use their bug/disease data to then do a google search on each bug or issue, how to identify, etc. and then apply as needed. If you are near any other growers, they may appreciate that you are treating your trees to limit carryover of issues into their operation.

I only have a handful of trees, but growing up Dad had 50 to 60. He was pretty religious about following the extension guidelines for both pest management and applying nutrients, once he started doing that he went from a few buggy misshapen apples to a very nice harvest.

Right now all we are doing is applying bt to try and limit gypsy moth caterpillars. They hit us hard the last couple of years. In general, we aren't doing a lot to manage the trees so mostly what we are getting is, you guessed it, a few buggy misshapen apples...when the deer don't get them all.

oosik · May 21, 2018

Ha, ha - - that the reason I will be planting two new apple trees. One for the deer and raccoons, the other, hopefully, for me.

Alan W. · May 21, 2018

I missed the dormant oil spray on mine this year, mind was somewhere else I guess. I have sprayed once already for insect and disease. I have a few of each apple, peach, pear and plum.
I give them a light pruning every winter and a layer of mulch out to the drip line. Fertilize during early bloom.
My biggest problem is the bucks wanting to rub them in the fall. Gonna have to run the electric fence around the orchard. Keeps them out of the garden.

HillStreet · May 21, 2018

GLyford said:
If you are already following the Extension guidelines, that is the best advice I could give you.

As to whether or not to treat, you could use their bug/disease data to then do a google search on each bug or issue, how to identify, etc. and then apply as needed. If you are near any other growers, they may appreciate that you are treating your trees to limit carryover of issues into their operation.

I only have a handful of trees, but growing up Dad had 50 to 60. He was pretty religious about following the extension guidelines for both pest management and applying nutrients, once he started doing that he went from a few buggy misshapen apples to a very nice harvest.

Right now all we are doing is applying bt to try and limit gypsy moth caterpillars. They hit us hard the last couple of years. In general, we aren't doing a lot to manage the trees so mostly what we are getting is, you guessed it, a few buggy misshapen apples...when the deer don't get them all.

I will definitely spray because there is no such thing as a good apple without spray. I am encouraged by the buds this year (first I ever sprayed) so I will watch them closely. I will have to deal with mice and deer but it is the apple crop I just want to see grow. This was a large apple orchard that thrived for many decades.

buckeyefarmer · May 21, 2018

I must spay and neuter mine, as they never have any offspring.....

Jstpssng · May 21, 2018

You may think that you will tweak your pruning next year. The truth however, is that you will find yourself cutting more out next year than you did this year. A healthy apple tree will put out water suckers like crazy, once they are't supporting all of those extra limbs.
I took on pruning an orchard in 2005 which I had done years before in 1984, and made pretty good weekend money. Like a dunderhead I didn't look at it, and told him that I would keep it up as long as he wanted it done. Then I went out and started working in it. It's amazing how much they had grown. I don't even know how he sprayed, the rows were all intertwined. Yet I couldn't just cut them back or all that he would have is stubs.
I worked on it every spring for 13 years. I gradually got growth coming in from the center, so that I could cut the outside limbs back. One year I went through with a chainsaw and cut the tops out of them; anything I couldn't reach from my 14' ladder got cut.
I hate running chainsaws from a ladder; I never feel safe.
13 years I worked on them, and never could get a tree done in less than 1 1/2 hours; often it took 2 1/2 to 3. When I started he had over 70 trees, but he gradually cut them back to about 40. I was burning up two weeks vacation every spring, and not getting my own projects done. I also realized that I'm not 20 any more; I don't move as fast, or take the chances I used to when the ground was softer and gravity wasn't as strong.

This year I told him that I might not have time to do them, and encouraged him to find someone else now that I had them back to a reasonable size; but it would be pretty hard to find someone who would work for what I did them for- 17 $/tree. I would work most of the day just to pay for my 100 mile round trip drive. I feel guilty because I left him hanging, but I'm finally getting caught up on my own springtime projects, my fruit trees got into the ground before they died, and I might even have a decent garden for the first time in years.

HillStreet · May 21, 2018

Jstpssng, I do know about the water spouts as I had many this year from a few trees I did last year. That is not a problem as they are small. I will be trying to shape them next dormant season so that they are airy and will grow good fruit. Do you suppose the drop will grow this year after pruning and spraying? I hope so.