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We recently bought a house that has many mature apple trees. The previous own passed away a few years ago, however, appeared to care about his property quite a bit. I was wondering if anyone could help us--we don't even know where to begin with these trees....what do we spray? how do we keep pests away? what fertilizer do they need?..and we REALLY want to be able to eat the apples.
The trees have a metal steak next to them and there's about 15 trees with a variety of apples. The trees are mature, overgrown, and have apples starting to grow on them....PLEASE HELP
Just type in Google “How to prune apple trees”. Apples have been around forever and many are willing to give you free advice. Here is one web sight: Pruning Apple Trees - YouTube
As far as spraying: This year you will find out what 'organic' apples look like. Yes; you will have insect and pest damage. But; they are still edible (try not to eat the worms if your squeamish). Most pest damage you can remove with a pairing knife. If you don't want to eat raw apples that pest have eaten; use them for pies or applesauce.
You could spray this year; but it is a little late to start. Insects do the most damage when the apples are very small. Usually we start off spraying in late winter or early spring with a dormant oil: Bonide Products Inc 16 oz. All Seasons Horticultural Spray 210 That basically suffocates the insect egg masses. Then I will spray ours with an insecticide such as “Seven”: Amazon.com : Garden Tech Sevin Ready to Use Bug Killer, 1-1/4-Gallon : Liquid Sevin : Patio, Lawn & Garden It is important that you do not use this spray until all of the flowers fall off – it will kill your bees that you need for pollination. That first insecticide spray is one of the most important – the fruit is very small and small insect bits will be very large when the fruit matures. You can spray at regular intervals thought the season as recommended on the insecticides. I usually only do the first two sprays (the dormant oil and first insecticide). I think of my fruit as semi-organic. I don't mind a few bug bites.
As far as fertilizing: You might call your cooperative extension service and see if they have soil test kits. In PA they they used to offer them for only about $4 (but that was many years ago). The thing is to get your soil tested so you know exactly how much fertilizer you need. Without the test I will get a bag of 10-10-10 fertilizer from a garden supply. I then take out a heavy, pointed, metal bar and poke holes around my trees about equal distances apart under the 'drip' edge of the tree. I then fill those with the fertilizer. It is cheaper than buying the fertilizer sticks and works pretty good.
Good luck - I'm sure others will give plenty of advice.
Lucky you! Where do you live? I'm no expert but I'm sure the answers you're looking for will be somewhat dependent on what growing zone you are in.
Your best bet would be your local university extension/master gardener program for your area, I think every state and county in the US (assuming you are in the US) has that.
I just googled "master gardener genesee county mi" and that brought me right to the MSU site with links to people and offices in my county. I'd try that. Where I live they have a stall with incredibly helpful people at the farmers market, plus an office where you can get tons of information and services like soil testing done for a very nominal fee.
Another good source would be a good local nursery.
We recently bought a house that has many mature apple trees. The previous own passed away a few years ago, however, appeared to care about his property quite a bit. I was wondering if anyone could help us--we don't even know where to begin with these trees....what do we spray? how do we keep pests away? what fertilizer do they need?..and we REALLY want to be able to eat the apples.
The trees have a metal steak next to them and there's about 15 trees with a variety of apples. The trees are mature, overgrown, and have apples starting to grow on them....PLEASE HELP
Where are you located? You should have a Horticultural Extension office where you can talk to experts form the related university program and get information. They all have websites. Whenever you can, rely on Extension recommendations because all of their information is based on verifiable research.
If you respond with your location, I can tell you where your Extension office is.
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