The fruit grower must always be on the alert. Things may happen almost in a night. One cannot wait for three or four days before spraying trees in the spring and summer, if this becomes necessary, because populations of some insects can build up by the hundreds in a day or two. The good manager, therefore, has insecticides and fungicides in stock, and he is able to use them the moment they are needed.
Even when individual trees are wired round to a height of, say, 3 feet it is possible for hares to stand on the tips of their hind legs and nibble the branches and the bark of the trunk, higher than the wire netting. We had a very serious case, in the winter of 1958-59, of this on the Chatham Fruit Farm, Wimbush, which is run 'organically' by me.
Unfortunately, some fruit growers are 'under engined' when it comes to spraying machinery, and so it may take them ten days or so to cover the orchards, which may well mean that the trees treated at the end of the period are given their insecticide or fungicide too late.
Young trees are naturally vigorous, whereas older trees that have started to crop heavily may so concentrate on the production of fruit buds that they do not produce enough young wood. Thus the owner will see the need of varying his manure program as the years go by.
It is probably true to say that the organic fruit grower faces less problems on the whole than the man who does not believe in mulching, and who tends to rush to the chemical manures in his anxiety to prevent one deficiency or another.
When the dessert apple is overfed with nitrogen it tends not to be so crisp, so sugary, so highly coloured, or such a good keeper. It may only be that there will be seasonal requirements of extra nitrogen or potash. There can be no standardized hard and fast rule. The wet year of 1958 produced high nitrogen conditions, without adding doses of dried blood Or whatever organic nitrogenous fertilizer may have been used. A very dry sunny year, however, may easily bring about low nitrogen conditions, with the result that the trees will not grow much.
Even when individual trees are wired round to a height of, say, 3 feet it is possible for hares to stand on the tips of their hind legs and nibble the branches and the bark of the trunk, higher than the wire netting. We had a very serious case, in the winter of 1958-59, of this on the Chatham Fruit Farm, Wimbush, which is run 'organically' by me.
Unfortunately, some fruit growers are 'under engined' when it comes to spraying machinery, and so it may take them ten days or so to cover the orchards, which may well mean that the trees treated at the end of the period are given their insecticide or fungicide too late.
Young trees are naturally vigorous, whereas older trees that have started to crop heavily may so concentrate on the production of fruit buds that they do not produce enough young wood. Thus the owner will see the need of varying his manure program as the years go by.
It is probably true to say that the organic fruit grower faces less problems on the whole than the man who does not believe in mulching, and who tends to rush to the chemical manures in his anxiety to prevent one deficiency or another.
When the dessert apple is overfed with nitrogen it tends not to be so crisp, so sugary, so highly coloured, or such a good keeper. It may only be that there will be seasonal requirements of extra nitrogen or potash. There can be no standardized hard and fast rule. The wet year of 1958 produced high nitrogen conditions, without adding doses of dried blood Or whatever organic nitrogenous fertilizer may have been used. A very dry sunny year, however, may easily bring about low nitrogen conditions, with the result that the trees will not grow much.
About the Author:
Newly planted trailing blackberry fruit trees in your garden, after being cut back to 6 inches, send canes growing along the ground.
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