Managing pests in your home orchard

Are you intending to plant, or have recently planted, a home fruit orchard? If so, you need to consider how you will manage insect and disease pests that will certainly attack your fruit crop in the coming years. Fruit gardeners find themselves in constant competition with the many kinds of pests, so there is a need for a pest management plan to tilt the odds in favor of successful fruit harvests.

Fruit pest management plans have a multi-faceted approach; they begin with maintaining a clean orchard. Sanitation includes controlling weeds in the orchard and the area surrounding the orchard. Weeds often serve as an alternate habitat for many kinds of fruit pests. They can be controlled with shallow cultivation under the trees, and with mowing between the tree rows and surrounding areas. But don’t stop with weed control; you’ll need to keep the orchard cleared of fruits left in the trees and on the ground after harvest. Cull fruits provide food and an overwintering place for numerous insect and disease pests. Be sure, also, to prune out diseased wood during the winter months when spreading infection risk is minimal.

Next, keep the trees healthy because healthier trees are better able to recover from the damage caused by insect and disease attacks. Tree health starts by eliminating the competition with weeds and grass; your fruit trees will have the upper hand when you maintain a grass-free/weed-free root zone throughout their lifetime. And, if it works with your maintenance practices, keep the area under the trees covered with permanent, wood chip mulch. Maintain the soil’s fertility; apply fertilizer according to a soil fertility management plan based on a soil test. Avoid over fertilization which increases the risk of pest problems.

Annual pruning of your fruit trees helps maintain optimum sunlight exposure on the leaves and developing fruit, and promotes adequate air circulation around the fruit and foliage. This greatly reduces the risk of certain disease problems that thrive in the dense foliage of crowded branches. As mentioned earlier, do most of your pruning during the winter months to reduce the risk of spreading disease. When you’re finished pruning be sure to remove all the pruned wood from the orchard area and destroy it.

Even with all your best management practices you will likely find that insects and disease problems continue to persist. Some disease problems can be easily managed by selecting fruit cultivars and varieties that are resistant to disease attack when you plan your fruit garden. For established orchards problematic insects and diseases can be managed with the timely applications of recommended pesticides. There are several types of pesticides available, including organically approved pesticides, which will help you stay on top of many pest problems.

We know how delicious home-grown fruit tastes. Keeping disease and insect problems at bay helps us enjoy the fruits of our labor. You can get more information about fruit pest management, the selection of pest-resistant varieties and the selection and proper use of recommended pesticides by contacting your local Extension office.

For more information, contact Jacob Weber, horticulture agent, [email protected] or 620-724-8233.