Fruit Tree Spraying

Today I ran up to our farm in Michigan after work to spray the fruit trees.

Let me give you a little overview of the farm.  In the front yard, I have one two-year cherry, two one-year cherries, one five-year cherry, and two 70-plus-year cherries.

The back is divided into several areas.  Around the Little House (a two-room house that was originally used as a caretaker's house) is what's left of the original orchard - four pear trees and three apple trees.  We actually found another pear tree while clearing out an overgrown patch this spring!  Though some of the fruit was added by my great-grandparents and my grandparents, I believe that these particular trees were already there when my family purchased the property in the 1940's, so they're all at least 70 years old.  There is a younger pear tree out in front of the Little House.  I don't know for sure when that was planted, but it's probably been there about 20 years.

The apple trees from the original orchard

I've added three apple trees (originally four, but one died this winter) and two pears in the field behind the original orchard and two apples in front of the house.

Apple/pear orchard

There is another field that juts out, and there are three first-year peach trees residing in that field.

As you'll see, all of the new trees have cages around them.  This is to deter deer.  The cages are comprised of three 6' lengths of 1x4 and two 4' lengths of 1x1.  I've got chicken wire stapled around the top of the wood, which allows access for me through the bottom to prune and wire and whatever else I need to do, but keeps the deer from nibbling on the tender trees.

We've been having various problems with insects as well as fungal issues.  Because protecting the environment is a concern for me, I researched organic insecticides and fungicides.  I finally decided to give neem oil a try.  Not only is it safe for the environment it's used in, it seems to be sustainable.  (If you run across something that says otherwise, please let me know.)  Because I have so many trees to spray, I purchased a 2-gallon sprayer from Home Depot, which cost about $20.  It worked really well!

For the spray, I used neem oil for the garden.  It needs to be diluted in water, with a bit of environmentally-friendly dish soap added as an emulsifier.  For that, I actually dissolved a bar of neem oil soap in water.  I purchased all of these products from www.neemking.org.  Make sure that if you do try this, follow the directions!

I also checked to see if any of the old apple trees had anything worth picking, and not really.  Even though we have a ton of apples this year (they even broke two of the branches off!), they all were afflicted with scab.  (Hopefully, the neem oil mixture will fix that for next year!)  I did pick some of the riper ones anyway, just to see if I can peel the apples.  I also picked a few pear trees from the younger pear tree in front of the Little House.

And, finally, it is nice to know that the fallen fruit doesn't go to waste.  When I pulled in this afternoon, this is what I saw!  They later came back again and snorted at me.  How dare I trespass on their personal orchard?