Image by Pesticides might ensure you get a fuller crop in your backyard, but really, can't the average homeowner live with losing a small percentage of fruit to insects if it means healthier fruit and a better environment?
Pesticides might ensure you get a fuller crop in your backyard, but really, can't the average homeowner live with losing a small percentage of fruit to insects if it means healthier fruit and a better environment?
Our apple tree on The Homestead recieves no petsticides and we have the best apple pies...Yummy!
in August 2008
So what are the best ways to grow fruit without using pesticides?
Please comment and help other interested people!
in August 2008
Here's a tip for keeping codling moth (and similar) out of fruit trees:
in late summer, tie wide strips of corrugated cardboard around the trunk of the tree. the larval stage of the moth will (instead of climbing up the tree) settle in to the nice cosy cardboard and call it home. early to mid spring, before they re-activate, take the cardboard off and burn it. a year or two at most, no more codling moth. (and you recycle a bit of cardboard too!)
in November 2008
To have an effective pest free orchard it is best to start out right. Most modern commercial varieties are designed to be operated in an artificial environment. Pick heirloom varieties. These survived a long time ago without modern pesticides.
Then, keep the trees/plants well fed and mulched. Healthy plants are far more resistant to pests than stressed plants.
Use "living mulch" and companion planting. These provide nutrients, retain moisture, keep the soil cool for the feeder roots and provide habitat for predator insects. We plant comfrey and tansy around our trees out to the drip line. In winter these die back and feed the soil. The comfrey is deep rooted and pulls up nutrients from deep in the soil.
Here in NZ, Australian possums are a pest. We trap them and often plant the possum corpses around the trees to recycle the nutrients.
Moths can also be caught in grease traps (grease smeared on cardboard collars). Use these as fire lighters when they've done their service.
Run chickens and ducks in the orchard if you can. They convert pests and weeds into poop. Careful with geese, sheep and other browsers which will nibble the bark off trees.
in February 2009
Yes, I recently heard that plants give off a frequency of reflected light that pest insects home in on if the plants are deficient in minerals. A healthy and mineral-dense plant will not attract insects and therefore won't need pest control. Most of the 'pest' species are just targeting the ill-of-health...
in July 2009
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