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16 October by Melissa Norris

How to Treat Fruit Trees Organically: When to Spray for Disease

Fruit, Gardening, Raising Your Own Food

Some of the links below are affiliate links, which means I will earn a commission at no additional cost to you, if you click through and make a purchase. Regardless, I only link to products we use on our homestead or believe in.

How to treat fruit trees organically, because let's be honest, not many of us want little worms in our apples and some diseases if left unchecked can damage a tree and the harvest. I don't know about you, but growing organic is important to me but so is getting a harvest, luckily, we don't have to have one or the other, amen!

Learn how to treat fruit trees organically and when to spray for disease and pests. Plus, what you can spray on your fruit trees naturally to help with diseases and insects in a home orchard setting.

Listen in below to the full podcast, Episode #207 How to Treat Fruit Trees Organically: When to Spray for Disease of the Pioneering Today Podcast, where we don’t just inspire you, but give you the clear steps to create the homegrown garden, pantry, kitchen and life you want for your family and homestead.

How to Treat Fruit Trees Organically: When to Spray for Disease

It’s important to note from the previous blog post that I love using Neem Oil in my organic practice. When using this or another organic spray to be sure it is 100% organic. For the Neem Oil, you want to be sure you’re using cold-pressed 100% Neem Oil. Because a lot of products say that they are natural or that they use Neem Oil, but if you look in the ingredients, they have other synthetic ingredients and often other pesticides that are not considered organic.

This is the Neem Oil I use that is straight cold pressed neem oil only (note: this is a concentrate so it will last you a long time and can also be used on fruit trees!)

I also have this sprayer to use when applying the neem oil to plants and trees.

Here are 5 tips to treat fruit trees organically.

Tip #1 | Clean up

Whether your trees are showing signs of infestation or disease, it’s essential to do a good clean up around the trees for preventative measures. Any fruit or leaves that drop from the tree need to be picked up because they harbor a lot of the insects, larva, or disease spores. This is why it’s crucial to do a cleanup. So as we are coming up on the time where the leaves begin to fall.

If the leaves or fruit were showing signs of disease, especially something that has spores, like a fungus you want to make sure that you don’t put the leaves or fruit in the compost pile as many times the spores are not killed during the composting process and can contaminate your compost. And we don’t want to spread it and make the matter worse. To dispose of the diseased leaves and fruit, you can burn it, or you can put them in a sealed black garbage bag and dispose of it that way. 

Tip #2 | Knowing the disease or pest

It’s vital to become knowledgeable of the disease or pests that are on your fruit trees.

  • Identify the disease or pests
  • Learning about how the pest lays its eggs
  • What is the life cycle
  • Does it survive freezing temperatures

In learning more about the pests, you’re able to know when the best time to treat so that it can be most effective.

Tip #3 | Treat the total tree

Once you clean up the leaves and fruit around the tree and identify what you are fighting against can begin to treat the tree. When using a spray to fight pests or diseases, it is important to saturate the tree because if you miss any part of the infected tree, you are just leaving the window of opportunity for the tree to reinfect itself.

For example the organic peach tree spray I'm using to treat peach leaf curl is this copper spray concentrate. My organic peach tree spray schedule is twice a year in the Fall when I have had 90% of leave drop and because of our typically wet winters, again in spring right before budding, completely saturating the tree. If you have drier winters then fall application should be sufficient.

Tip #4 | Safety

Even though we’re only using organic sprays, it’s important to still use caution not only for yourself but for other things as well. Be sure to spray 

  • in the morning
  • when there is no chance of rain
  • when it isn’t windy because we don’t want to be inhaling it or getting it in our eyes. 

You also want to wear protective clothing – long sleeve shirt, pants, boots, and gloves. We also want to be mindful of our pollinators and honey bees. If you are spraying where there are blossoms, it’s important to spray in the evening instead.

Tip #5 | Reapply Organic Fruit Tree Spray Schedule

Not only will you be applying in the Fall, but then you’ll also need to be reapplying in the late Winter or early Spring right when the leave buds come out. Some of them you’ll need to apply when you have your blossoms, and some others need to be treated post blossom. That is why it is important to identify what you’re dealing with, so then you can mark on your calendar when you need to apply based on the life cycle of the disease or pest.

Tip #6 | How to keep bugs off fruit trees

This coming spring, I’ll also be testing two methods for my apple maggot issues. 

  1. Bagging the apple in its immaturity

This method is ideal if you have younger trees and not multiple trees. As it would be a huge undertaking to bag the apples if they’re too many.

2. Adding traps to the trees

These traps are red in color and hang in the tree. It then attracts the fly and traps it and the eggs. These yellow sticky traps seem like another great option and may be easier, I plan on testing both to decide which I”ll use going forward this spring when the flies hatch out.

Resources for Growing Organic Fruit and Berries

  • How to Prune a Blueberry Bush for a Larger Harvest
  • How to Plant Raspberries – Soil Prep, Growing & Caring for your Raspberry Plants
  • How to Prune Raspberries
  • How to Prune Apple Trees
  • How to Grow Elderberries
  • 5 Tips to Starting an Orchard & Growing Fruit
  • When and How to Plant Fruit Trees
  • Planting Berry Bushes & Fruit Trees (How Many to Plant Per Person)
  • Growing Fruit Trees in Pots
  • Planting a Fruit Tree Guild
  • How to Care for Fruit Trees In Fall & Winter

I hope that you found this post helpful. As you can see, the Fall is best time to begin spraying your fruit trees. If you want to learn more about organic gardening pre-order my new book The Family Garden Plan: Grow a Year's Worth of Healthy and Sustainable Food plus get all the pre-order bonuses  here. 

Episode #205 How to Care for Berry Plants in the Fall (to increase next year’s harvest)

Episode #203 5 Tips for Organic Pest Control for Vegetable Gardens

Filed Under: Fruit, Gardening, Raising Your Own Food

Melissa Norris

Melissa K. Norris inspires people's faith and pioneer roots with her books, podcast, and blog. Melissa lives with her husband and two children in their own little house in the big woods in the foothills of the North Cascade Mountains. When she's not wrangling chickens and cattle, you can find her stuffing Mason jars with homegrown food and playing with flour and sugar in the kitchen.

Read more about Melissa

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Comments:

  1. Nancy H.

    3 years ago

    An older (96 yr.)friend of ours has used “Orchard Moth Recipe” her whole life, and now I use this, it has proven to work very well. I’m always amazed at the amount of bugs that I find in this jug!
    Place all in Gallon Milk Jug with a 4″ hole cut in upper side, leaving handle in place:
    1/2 cup cider vinegar
    1/2cup sugar
    1/2 gallon water
    1 Banana peel

    Hang in tree when Blossoms first appear.

    Reply
    • Melissa Norris

      3 years ago

      Thanks for sharing this!!

      Reply
    • Roy B

      2 years ago

      I raise honey bee’s and use this recipe in late summer when wasps and hornets begin to raid my hives to kill the honey bee’s and steal their honey. The fermented syrup this creates also attracts wax moths that will enter the hives to lay their eggs in the wax frames.

      Reply
  2. Mike Kostka

    3 years ago

    I have recently thought that 15 minutes segments on radio would work. I like the length.

    Reply
  3. Heather

    3 years ago

    Hello. I want to thank you for all your great information you share! I was wondering if the been oil has the mixture that needs to be used when spraying?

    Thank you
    HeatherL

    Reply
    • Melissa Norris

      3 years ago

      Hey Heather, I think autocorrect struck, I’m not sure what you’re asking on the mixture to be used when spraying.

      Reply
  4. Kelsey

    3 years ago

    Thank you for the tips! I’m in Marysville, WA and also battling apple maggots. A friend got me those little pantyhose type covers for the apples. They look so funny on the tree and didnt work at all. It’s funny how you mentioned the red traps because we have 3 apple trees. 2 produce green/yellow apples and one is red. The red one got the most apple maggots! I’m going to do a good clean up, try the neem oil (thank you for the idea), the ACV/banana peel jug that somwone suggested here and also look into that red trap. Good luck getting rid of them! Haha

    Reply
  5. connie

    3 years ago

    So am i understanding correctly, that you use the neem oil on apple trees,and not the the copper spray?

    Reply
    • Melissa Norris

      3 years ago

      It depends on what you’re treating for.

      Reply
  6. Kathyjo

    2 years ago

    This year our peach trees were so beautiful then in two days covered in leaf curl and fungus and dropping leaves very fast. I used 1/4 c liquid garlic barrier in l gallon sprayer with tsp ivory soap one time. Short time weeks later trees were beautiful curl was gone as those leaves dropped and new ones came back out and beautiful. I did not know the leaves would regrow back out? I am going to start very early next year with this mix and it does not bother the bees. Also bees will work your blooms all hours and neem leaves residual. A friend of mine with an orchard had the university come out and they used a white clay mixed in water and was spraying many times a season with it. Basically every time it rained. But it did work however it left a residue that had to be washed off. Thanks for posting. I am also going to try the moth recipe your commenter or put out especially for the Japanese e beetles we have trouble with here who bother the pears and almonds.

    Reply
    • Melissa Norris

      2 years ago

      You’ll want to make sure and spray with something like copper (which is organic) right before the leaf buds open in spring or you’ll see it again.

      Reply
      • Clarence Hibst

        1 year ago

        What Kathyjo was referring to is Kaolin clay which is a protectant not an herbicide.

        Reply
  7. Peggy Gray

    2 years ago

    Hi Melissa,
    I was wondering what is the sticky stuff that you use on your apple tree to deter bugs? I have the fake apple to hang in my trees.
    Thank you!

    Reply
    • Melissa Norris

      2 years ago

      This is the brand of the sticky stuff https://amzn.to/3wdCiUM

      Reply
  8. Bernice Hayman

    9 months ago

    Thank you for the info, certainly helps to know what to do an will carry that out best possible way.
    I have a blackboy peach tree grew from seed. Now out in back garden.
    Wasn’t looking to great an got only one little peach on it.
    Also have an apricot tree , not looking so good, but will treat it as mentioned. Ever grateful , Bernie.

    Reply

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