Do you have a garden with fruit trees and you’d like to get a bit more organic?
Preserving and protecting nature is getting more and more attractive, most of all for our own dear little children.
Luckily, there are organic treatments for fruit trees that make it possible to reduce the amounts of chemical products used in the garden.
Review and advice.
Is organic safe?
It is very important to start with a short note as regards organic treatments for fruit trees. Organic does not necessarily mean safe! We tend to think that everything that is organic or directly collected from nature doesn’t present any risk to human beings. That’s wrong. You can imagine that a product that kills insects isn’t really innocuous… even it it’s perfectly natural.
So first of all, it is critical to follow elementary precautions when going about treating your fruit trees organically. Scrupulously follow indications provided on the packaging of your product.
Bordeaux mixture
Very well-known by all gardeners, Bordeaux mixture is a product authorized for use in organic farming. A blend of copper sulfate and quicklime, bordeaux mixture looks like a blueish powder that must be dissolved in water.
The resulting solution is then sprayed on trees to destroy fungus like downy mildew and also try to contain various other diseases that infect fruit trees.
- All our pages about Bordeaux mix
Sulfur
Sulfur can be added to Bordeaux mixture to “organically” treat your fruit tree. It will supplement the treatment provided by Bordeaux mixture.
It can be used curatively, but most often is applied preventively. Its favorite targets: apple scab and powdery mildew. But sulfur can also of course be used on its own. Simply dilute in water and spray it.
Pyrethrin
Extracted from chrysanthemum, pyrethrin is an excellent insecticidal against aphids as well as caterpillars and many other insects.
Trichoderma
Trichoderma comes in powder or granule forms. The former is applied on wounds (after pruning) of the fruit tree.
The latter is sprinkled in nooks and crannies of the trunk. Collected from the spores of a friendly fungus, Trichoderma is an organic treatment against fruit tree parasites.
Marseille soap
Yes, simple organic Marseille soap made from olive oil (no animals fats of course) does the trick! Simply grate and melt in water to produce a perfectly natural and non-toxic insect killer!
It’s also possible to add a dab of plant-based oil to the mix.
The key concept here is to “suffocate” aphids and scale insects with this special potion. Diligently spray both the top and the underside of leaves.
The biggest advantage of this product is that it is truly 100% safe for nature, for the gardener, and the gardener’s children! It is however slightly less effective than the aforementioned treatments. It seems these old maid’s remedies have a future in organic gardening, too!
- To grow all your fruit trees, check out our gardening pages related to fruit trees.
Hi,
I have 6 different fruit trees in my garden and I looking for Spring and Summer treatment ( apple, plums, apricot and cherry tree)
Can I have your advice please?
Thank you
There are a few different things to know when growing fruit trees. When fruits appear on a tree, it’s normal for some of the fruits to drop off. Sometimes it can reach to half of all fruits, and it’s still perfectly natural. For example, if a fruit wasn’t fertilized by bees, it might start to develop but then the tree realizes that there aren’t any seeds in it and it will let the fruit drop. That way it can concentrate on fertilized fruits instead. Also, not having too many fruits help the tree cope in drought or heat wave.
But normally this shouldn’t affect more than half of the fruits on the trees you mentioned, more like about a third. If you didn’t have any fruits at all or just a few, then there’s a problem. In case of fungus, try preparing bordeaux mix or one of these fermented weed teas to spray over the trees (horsetail and nettle are effective against fungus).
Maybe check these pages to see if they’re similar to diseases that might appear:
– treating against powdery mildew
– scale insects, especially mealybugs
– check if trees show signs of thrips damage
– sooty mold and its cause, aphids
Our fruit tree treatment solution!