I’m happy to report that after totally muffing the punt in 2017 with regards to my fruit trees. . .I kind of hit the jackpot in 2018!
Everything was peachy for me. . .and peary.
Ok, I’ll stop.
But seriously, compared to last year (my rookie year with fruit trees), this year was an incredibly successful season. Imagine going a guy wasting all his money on lottery tickets for a year before finally going to Vegas and winning the big jackpot with slots. Yes, it was really that good!
For those who don’t know, I colossally flopped last year with my fruit trees and none of them produced edible fruit. Every single fruit grown was infected with curculio (a small boring beetle that reeks havoc on fruit) resulting in my many months of hard work turning into a huge disappointment. Granted, they are relatively young trees with very low resistance to pests, but still. . .I thought I was doing what I needed to do. I thinned the trees well enough, sprayed with BT, watered them when needed, fertilized them at the right time and trimmed them. Needless to say when I was not able to eat even a single peach, I was not a happy camper and seriously contemplated giving up organic fruit trees and compromising with harsher pesticides.
Luckily I was able to learn a bit more through research and good advice and managed the trees a lot better this year than last year. The results, as you can see below, were delicious!
Here is how I was able to turn my bad fruit tree luck around:
Scrapped BT and started using Neem Oil – Neem Oil is freaking awesome! I admittedly almost gave up organics last year after the BT spray I tried proved to be useless and smelled up my yard (seriously. . .that stuff stinks). I didn’t think about making the switch to Neem Oil until talking with an associate at a local Pike’s. I told her that I garden organically with everything but I’m making an exception for the fruit trees because I didn’t think it was worth attempting in the insect friendly southeastern climate in which I live in. Luckily, she pointed me towards the Neem Oil and encouraged me to give it a try. Let me tell you, it was like night and day! I’m talking a good 70% insect reduction from last year, meaning that I was able to score a good 6 pounds worth of peaches! Admittedly some of the ones picked did have a bug or two when opened, but we’re probably only talking about 4 or so small ones out of the whole bunch and me and my wife were able to make a good sized bag of dehydrated peaches!
I highly suggest Neem Oil because in my experience it is a must if you want to stay organic with your peach trees.
Thinned my fruit constantly – Last year I was admittedly not the best with in this department and thought with the erroneous mindset of “some may fall off” or “I don’t want to lose peaches!!!”. With fruit trees, this is a disastrous mentality and one I was glad I broke myself of. By being more discriminate, I was able to get bigger peaches and pears and use a lot less spray than I would have had to if I didn’t. Checking for slow growing runts, spotted peaches and ones with obvious bug bites every few days will save you a lot of headache come harvest time. In all honesty, I was a bit obsessive about it but in retrospect I was able to get a whole lot more from growing a whole lot less.
I switched my mulch from wood chips to straw – I almost feel like seasoned homesteaders and arborists would consider this heresy but for me it worked. Last year, wooden chips didn’t always seemed to always get blown away or find themselves breaking down too easily. The straw that I put down, however, seems to be doing a lot better of a job with controlling weeds while not restricting moisture at the roots. Now maybe this isn’t the most optimal mulching strategy but for me, it has truly made a difference.
The only sad note to report is that the apple tree didn’t even try to give fruit this year, but I think next year with better fertilization and conditions it will be fine. Overall though, I can’t complain because compared to the big goose egg that I posted last year in the fruit department, everything is now peachy.
I’m always looking to improve, so if you have some tips, let me know below!
Thanks and God bless,
– The Darn Messenger