Are Fruit Trees Worth the Trouble?

[so lucky]

I keep thinking it would be great to have a few apple, peach and cherry trees, but I remember from working in retail how much people felt they had to spray, not to mention prune, their trees. So to you who have fruit trees, is it worth the trouble? Do you do all the spraying at the recommended times?

 

[Ridgerunner]

My take on this is that there is often a lot of difference between what can happen and what will happen. You can get all kinds of blights, scalds, pests, whatever but you also may not get them. And a lot of the recommendations are for people growing fruit commercially. They need to have "perfect" fruit so they can sell it. I don't necessarily have to have perfect fruit to use it. I cut out a lot of bad spots on my peaches and still canned a bunch, made jam, and made chutney.

Fruit trees are an investment, not just the money but the time it takes for them to produce. Pruning is not a big deal for me. I actually enjoy it. But some people really don't like to do it.

I do some of the spraying, but not all. I do the dormant oil every January-February time frame depending on the weather. There are some of the others I do but not many. I don't remember which one it is but I'll do one this spring I had not been doing because of a certain pest that showed up this past year.

To me fruit trees are worth it. There is just something about picking a ripe fruit off a tree and eating it. Several of the early plums this year had that white worm in it. I'd just cut them open, remove the bad part, and eat the rest.

 

[journey11]

I've not sprayed a thing yet, although I always intend to! You still get fruit, just not flawless, pretty fruit. More important than spraying is probably sanitation habits in the orchard to keep bugs and disease at bay. Remove all dropped and rotting fruit, mummy fruit (hangs on tree), leaf litter, weeds. And proper pruning...a tree that is opened up to sunlight and air flow will have far less disease problems. I don't know about anybody else, but I always look forward to pruning my trees each year. I spend the spring and summer making note of limbs or shaping that I have to wait until winter dormancy to take care of. It's one of the few things I can do around here that stays done for awhile. Very cathartic and satisfying to me. Also chickens and other wild birds can help keep bugs down too. The bugs will always "get their share" as my FIL used to say, but it is worth it to have the organic fruit. There are organic sprays too.

Something to bear in mind: Peaches here are up to about $40 a bushel, most apple varieties $22 a bushel, golden delicious $30 a bushel. One tree that will eventually bear 3 or more bushels a year pays for itself very quickly!

 

[Greenthumb18]

I think fruit trees are worth it, I enjoy planting fruit trees on my property in NC. I try to pick varieties that are better suited with dealing with disease, etc to be more successful when growing them. I'm looking to plant a few apple and pears this fall. There's nothing like planting your own orchard, then being able to harvest fruit in a few years.

 

[journey11]

Greenthumb made a very good point... There are usually a handful of varieties with excellent disease resistance that will greatly improve your chances of success. For example, my sister has a cedar tree in her yard that she really likes and doesn't want to cut down. Cedars spread cedar apple rust disease and the apple tree on her property when they bought the place has never had anything but tiny, knarly, worthless apples on it (some yellow variety). Planting one of the very resistant varieties in its place would allow her have apples and never have take any control measures. Pears are more prone to fireblight. If you plan to have both pears and apples and if fireblight is common in your area, you would also want to look for apple varieties resistant to that. Just about every category of fruit, veggie or berry will have a few varieties that will show good resistance to certain problematic diseases. Your county ag extension is a good resource to query for varieties that do well in your locale.

 

[digitS']

Mom & Dad said that they didn't want fruit trees because of the investment in time that it takes before they bear fruit.

When I was a young guy, I bought a half dozen fruit trees and planted them on my place. Within a few years, I moved . . . So, I dug up my trees and moved them into Mom & Dad's backyard . I guess I must have had an okay to do that. Investment in time? They lived in that house for another 35 years!

I think 1 dwarf apple tree might have died of old age . Anyway. The peaches must have been a mistake. One had bark borers and died. I replaced it - that 1 died. Another replacement/another death.

My French petite prune was damaged and weakened until it also had to be taken out after about 15 years but it had done so well that I put another in and it also did fantastically. Another 20 years and it is probably still doing well! The only thing that tree needed is a spraying with insecticidal soap every year to give the tree a break from the aphids & leaf-roller caterpillars. Tons of fruit!

Those red balls with Tanglefoot on them was what trapped the worms that got in the apples. They benefited from the soap spray some years, too. One apple grew so tall and still wasn't producing fruit so Dad wanted it taken out. The other 2 little trees did great until 1 began to kind of break apart, as I said. The other was a very productive little Northern Spy, the last I saw of it. Gallons & gallons of applesauce & applebutter could come off that tree each year !

Steve

 

[lesa]

I have a couple apple trees, a plum, a couple peach and a cherry. The apples are great- the plums were fabulous. Still waiting on the peaches and cherries (just planted them last year.) Didn't spray any of them. Did have a lot of aphids on the plum- but I took a spray bottle and kind of washed the leaves with just water. Had a wonderful crop of plums. Mind you the tree is small, just over my head. My aphid removal system, would be mighty difficult on a large tree. I say if you can find a good deal on a tree- go for it. My first apple was purchased at Home Depot on sale for under 20 bucks...

 

[Jared77]

golden delicious $30 a bushel

REALLY!?!?! Who's paying that price for them? I'm not a fan of the delicious variety, I always thought someone should sue the developer for false advertisement. I love apples but the delicious are just not my thing.

The house we lived in for while had peach trees. Every fall we'd get a HUGE crop of peaches and I sprayed twice a season. Once to get rid of the bumpy leaves (I forgot what caused that) and then again later in the year as prescribed by the local nursery and master gardeners there. We'd get Big crazy good peaches, they were so soft and juicy man I miss those. There were 4 of them and I miss those things dearly. When we own a home again Id like to have a pair apple, a pair of plum, a pair of peaches and a pair of pear trees. Just enough to harvest for our own purposes and maybe give a few away. Even still that's 8 trees but Id gladly have them. Cherries are great but the birds always got the ones on my parents trees before we could ever get them. Oh well.

 

[journey11]

golden delicious $30 a bushel

REALLY!?!?! Who's paying that price for them? I'm not a fan of the delicious variety, I always thought someone should sue the developer for false advertisement. I love apples but the delicious are just not my thing.

I guess they are more popular. They've always cost more than the other varieties. I usually get my apples at the feed store, but went straight to the orchard this year. My neighbor says they make the best pies, but I've never tried using them for anything other than eating plain.

 

[Nyboy]

I planted fruit trees just for the flowers. To me nothing says spring like a fruit tree in full flower.