Need recipe for organic spray for fruit trees

We have 27 apple trees, two pear, two peach, two plum and two cherry trees. We've been spraying with regular fruit tree spray we buy at the hardware store. It is supposed to control insects and various diseases and fungus. I'd like to make my own spray that is as organic as possible. We want good fruit and to keep the trees as healthy as possible.

Does anyone have ideas for orchard spray and also a scedule for spraying in zone 5 mid Michigan?

Here is your schedule..........early Spring when buds just begin to move apply a winter oil spray. This may be your most important application. Now switch to a summer oil spray when you have tight buds. Another summer spray at closed but pink bud. No spray while in full bloom. Another summer oil spray at bloom petal drop and every seven days there after to fruit pick time.

This having been said you now need to hear from someone who has done this with home made spray material. I have not made my own. I purchase the commercial oils and other spray material from Arbico Organics or another firm like them. I only have half a dozen trees where preditor release is not a good practice. You may have to think five schedules...one for each type tree at least untill you get past petal drop. With the best management I seem to be able to manage I still lose up to a third of the crop. That is OK here because we can hardly eat what we get anyway.

docgipe, what is causing the 1/3 crop loss? Insects? fungus? other?

Thanks doc for the information on the oils. I have some dormant oil. I'm guessing you have to switch to a lighter oil for warmer weather right? I'll look up the Arbico Organics and see what I can learn. Do you start spraying in March or April? I see you're in zone 5 also. I'm in the same zone.

Brenda

Brenda.............the spray starts are different for your different trees but always while the buds are still small and just starting to swell. Some advisements would have you to do another early oil spray starting a week earlier than when I start. It seems easier for me to remember by keeping an eye on the tree and starting my attack when the tree wakes up so to speak.

.......my crop loss is nearly always due to insects. I believe that all who attempt to stay organic will have a third or greater crop loss when less than acres of trees are involved. My best results are with blueberries followed by peaches, apricots, grapes and apples in that order. I do not claim to be organic.....I call my situation healthy patch practices using as many organic practices as I can. Where I live I doubt if organic is an honest word for fruit management unless substancial losses are acceptable. If I get a real bad year and only half good fruit we are OK with that because we can not eat even half of what the trees produce. Finally we do not mind a little protein in the applesauce and applebutter.

Neem Oil is my principle insecticide, miticide and fungicide three in one spray. I will use other organic sprays some years depending on what the difficulty seems to be. I use very little if any harsh chemicals but on occasion over the fifty years or more I have used them.

Here in southern NJ our biggest problem is with brown rot on peaches and nectarines. I have noticed that the sections of the trees that received spray from our sprinkler were much more affected than the sections that only got water on the ground, though, so that's something I'm going to explore this summer. We did get a decent amount of peaches for the first time last summer and we ate them with great delight!

Do you have any opinions on Spinosad which claims to be an organic insecticide safe for fruit and vegetables?

Spinosad has been around as far back as 1998. It allready has many names. I did some homework on it but do not find it clearly presented as an organically approved product. I see the maker by searching the web trying to find words to bring organic persons to their attention. I do not know anyone who has used the product. My opinion is to suggest the position of the Doubting Thomas until such time as it is an OMRI approved product rating is in place.

Being organic is not the whole story when one looks at the toxen reports. Being OMRI approved with clear labeling for use on specific food products is what I would like to see.

doc, thanks for the good info on spraying. I tried not spraying my peach trees at all last year and got nothing, although I think my problem was squirrels. One day the peach would be there, the next it was gone. And this was when they were still about the size of a quarter. My question is the oils, I went to the Arbico website and they had a good article on fruit tree care. They sell horticultural oil, but they don't use the word neem, which I've read a lot, or winter or summer. Do you just use a stronger concentration in the winter, or is it a different product? And what is neem?

Cindy, we lost all of our peaches to squirrels when we first started growing them; they don't need them to be ripe since they're after the pit. My husband has worked on keeping the squirrel population down and we also moved our orchard further from the woods and closer to the house, with smaller fruit trees, and we've had better luck.

Leslie

Mine are very close to the house. I tried to cover them with a net last year, but I didn't do a very good job. This year I'll be better prepared. They are small trees, espalliered, so a net is very manageable.

Over the years I have used several horticultural oils....Some are winter spray types and others are classified as summer oil sprays. I use a lot of Neem Oil. I believe it is better as a summer spray allthough I have used it for early sprays too.

You have to read the label. Some are organic and some are manmade oils. The label suggests the use.

I use neem oil on everything all year long it stops all the bugs and fungus and mold i used to have.It's always hot & humid here, and now are now using neem cake fertilizer on all my plants and tree's, and vegs.no other type of spray or poison what so ever.i get 100% neem and the neem cake from garden suppy here on the Big Island.