I wish you luck with your orchard. When I moved back to the family farm 20 years ago dad had a nice 200 tree peach orchard just starting to produce. I don’t know much about apples or plums but I do know a thing or two about peaches. I hope I can be of help.
I know that one of the hardest things in the world to do it produce a beautiful basket of peaches to sell at the farmers market. Between March and June, we’d spray a minimum of 12 times, either or insecticide or fungicide. Sometimes both at once, and that’s not all the chemicals. In early fall we’d treat the ground for all the boring insects that like to spend the winter in the tree trunks or the ground itself.
It’s a trade off with treating your trees. If you want every piece of fruit you produce to be beautiful it’s an all-out war on bugs and fungus. If you can live with 50% loss, 25% damaged fruit and 25% decent fruit not nearly as much spraying is required. All the information you need is down at the local county extension office. They will have all the data on the insects & fungus you face and the chemicals you will need to fight them.
The organic route… One morning at the farmers market I showed up with 40 beautiful baskets of peaches to sell. A lady asked me if my peaches were organic. I wanted to tell here the real truth. If they were organic there wouldn’t be 40 baskets, there’d only be one and she wouldn’t be able to afford it. If you live near a population center (lots of cash) you may wish to go the organic route. I live 100 miles from the nearest city. No one out here in the county had the cash required for a beautiful organic peach. Simply put, organic fruit wasn’t a commercially viable option for me. That said I still did every thing I could to produce safe, wholesome fruit. I even brought in crushed volcanic rock by the ton. At the end of the day when the county agent tells you to put a chemical on your trees you can’t pronounce… it’s a crap shoot.
There is one thing however that affects all growers no matter the type of fruit. Over the last 15 years I’ve seen dozens of people retire and move out here to the country. Most want a few fruit trees. Almost to a person they all made the same catastrophic mistake. They FAILED to prune their trees. 3 years later their trees are 25ft tall.
Of what value is the most beautiful apple in the world if you need a skidsteer with a telescopic boom to harvest it? PRUNE your trees!!!! When I drive by the home of one of the folks who moved out here I always shake my head. I sincerely feel bad for them. Some years they have beautiful fruit but can only harvest a couple of baskets they can reach from the ground. They are older folks and don’t need to be up on ladders 25ft in the air. 90% of their fruit is devoured by birds and other critters. A waste of time, effort and money on a grand scale that could be averted by something so simple! Something completely under the control of the grower.
We began pruning about the end of January at this latitude. It always seemed to be 35 degrees and raining, an entire week spent in freezing rain, lovey! What’s the old saying? “Toughen up Buttercup”. Pruning can be a miserable experience but it’s the one thing you can absolutely control when it comes to fruit. If you produce some fruit you can at least enjoy it. If not then the birds will thank you. Prune your trees! I hope my experience helps in some way.
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Last note on peaches… There is a nasty fungus called “Brown Rot” that hits peaches just as they begin to ripen. I’ve seen it destroy 40% of a crop in 3 days. It’s one fungicide you might want to consider.