I Want To Grow Fruit To Eat, Do I Need Special Care For Apples And Grapes? I.e. Pesticides?
Posted by admin on February 27, 2010
I just dont want to get sick from eating fruit.
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An important note on fruit trees. There are male and female trees and some that go both ways. No I am not trying to be funny… although it does sound funny. Most but not all fruit trees, apples, pears, cherry, plum, etc… need a different variety of tree to pollinate them. Some fruit trees will pollinate them selves. But they will do better if there is a cross pollinator in the area. If the tree is not pollinate it will not produce fruit. Bees are the best friends of fruit trees.
Example: A Golden Delicious Apple Tree is a good pollinator for a Red Delicious Apple Tree and several other apple trees. The best thing to do is plant these 2 trees about 20 feet apart. I wouldn’t go more than 100 feet apart.
Another note: I have to put a net over my cherry trees to keep the birds from eating my corp.
Unless you get worms on your apples.. just let them grow natural.
Apples can become so loaded with pests that it’s best to do preventative maintenance. That will keep your apples healthy over time and keep you eating apples.
Some organic pest control methods: Coddling moth sticky traps, red sphere traps for apple maggots, and using nylon booties to cover the ripening fruit and keep the nasties away.
If you try and grow fruit without pesticides I wouldn’t plant many apples.
Plant a sour cherry and strawberries. You can get sour cherry’s with no spraying. If you plant sweet cherries you will need two trees and a sour cherry will not pollinate a sweet cherry. Birds are a problem with sweet cherry’s too.
1. Two words: organic pesticides.
2. Start with seedlings on some plants, like tomatoes.
3. Apples are grown on trees. It would ONLY be feasible to use an apple tree seedling. If you are to attempt this you would not experience a harvest in quite some time. Also, check for climate-feasibility. For instance, orange trees are best grown on the east or west coast..
4. For potatoes, simply take a potato, cut it in half and plant it. For seed depth as well as a variety of garden topics, check out:http://www.reimerseeds.com/tomato_711.as…
In terms of care, check that site out. This is all the information I can provide.
I prefer to never use chemical pesticides. Your apples should be fine without them, I don’t know much about growing grapes, but Davesgarden.com is a great place for gardening tips.
Why not let the plants grow naturally – better to lose a little fruit to bugs etc than to coat them in insecticides !