Anyone know how to deal with sick fruit trees

[kika]

Thanks for all the suggestions. My neighbour offererd to come spray verderame on my trees. Had no idea what it was and have since found out and declined the offer for the time being. I've decided to this year to be very relaxed and see what happens. I've been reading and I need to read a bit more to really understand what's going on. I will get a professional to come and assess the trees too, that way I don't waste time trying to resurrect a tree when there is little hope. The West Virginia uni site is excellent reading I have actually found one of the problems in my garden listed on there.

[AllanMason]

Originally Posted by kika

My neighbour offererd to come spray verderame on my trees. Had no idea what it was and have since found out and declined the offer for the time being.

My dictionary says that 'verderame' means - logically enough - verdigris which, according to Wikipedia, has been used as a fungicide. Given that it's also toxic to humans, I imagine it would probably deal with at least some insect problems you might have. However, it's not something I'd want sprayed around my garden.

I wonder, however, if your neighbour's reference to 'green copper' might not have been a colloquial term for copper sulfate, or some variation on what's called Bordeaux mixture in English speaking lands. They do seem to spray this stuff with abandon here (look out for the vinyards with totally blue leaves in a couple of months), although I have heard it suggested that agricultural chemical manufacturers pander to this tradition by including an inert blue-green powder in their products.

I do think you're right to jsut stand back and pay attention to what's going on in your garden this first year. A notebook or computer diary might be helpful: something I always tell myself I should keep, but never do and so always end up forgetting how things progress as the days trip by.

Myabruzzohome is right about trees having a natural lifespan. Cherries are supposedly good for about 20 years only, although I suspect the one in our garden with a trunk 18 inches in diametre is a lot older than that and it's in very good health with a good crop of cherries developing. Myabruzzohome is also right about lack of water being a problem, quite a few trees in our garden either died completely, suffered die-back or looked very unhappy and produced little or no fruit during the 2006-07 drought here.

I hope you discover over the next few months that things are a lot brighter in your garden than you currently suspect.

Al

[piedmont_phil]

Originally Posted by kika

My neighbour offererd to come spray verderame on my trees. Had no idea what it was and have since found out and declined the offer for the time being.

Depending upon your neighbour and what he is treating "verderame" should be OK, copper sulphate and zolfo (sulphur) or hydrated lime - which is permissable in "organic" farming. Also known as Bordeaux mix.
The verderame is primarily combatting the impact of high humidity (e.g. black rot on grapes, leaf curl on peaches and scab and bitter rot on apples along with various mildew).
For the 2nd year our prized apple tree has suffered wooly afid (branches covered in white sticky "fur") - and I have found the most effective treatment is a hose and my hands - liberally hosing off the "fur" and rubbing each effected area with hands and water to remove all traces - labourious, sticky but effective and entirely without chemicals!

[AllanMason]

Originally Posted by piedmont_phil

Depending upon your neighbour and what he is treating "verderame" should be OK, copper sulphate and zolfo (sulphur) or hydrated lime - which is permissable in "organic" farming. Also known as Bordeaux mix.

When I learned that years ago, I immediately began to have doubts about what an 'organic' label actually means. Personally, I'd no more drink a tumbler of Bordeaux mix than I would down a glass of one of the more modern fungicides.

Originally Posted by piedmont_phil

For the 2nd year our prized apple tree has suffered wooly afid (branches covered in white sticky "fur") - and I have found the most effective treatment is a hose and my hands - liberally hosing off the "fur" and rubbing each effected area with hands and water to remove all traces - labourious, sticky but effective and entirely without chemicals!

The fruit trees we planted last winter have been thoroughly gnawed by caterpillars and sucked by aphids this spring. I wouldn't mind too much if they were bigger, but they're only whips at this point and they don't have much foliage to spare. I'm taking a gruesome pleasure out of finding the wriggling little monsters where they hide under curled leaves and squishing them. Same applies to the scale insects on our lemon tree.

Very labour-intensive, but somehow also satisfying in a sort of barbaric way!

Al

[piedmont_phil]

Originally Posted by AllanMason

When I learned that years ago, I immediately began to have doubts about what an 'organic' label actually means. Personally, I'd no more drink a tumbler of Bordeaux mix than I would down a glass of one of the more modern fungicides.

I know what you are saying Al but I wouldn't drink horse manure whereas I would put it on my tomatoes :-)

Working in the vines today (at last a dry day!) I noticed there are a lot (*lot*) of ladybirds - fantastic - one of natures best as far as geting rid of the nasties goes.....

[Mathematician]

I was at a meeting last night with an organic orchardist (apples, pears, cherries, peaches, apricots) -- for the first time I heard that sometimes a sick tree will go into a biennial mode (skipping fruiting every other season) -- her suggestion, besides the manual care that's been described here, is to add a "summer" pruning to your winter pruning schedule, for the sick trees only, first by removing up to half of the set fruit if the tree shows signs of scale or fur or other pest infestation, and after the fruit is off the tree, remove any small water suckers or crossed small branches completely, to "dry" the tree out before the winter rains/snows set in. I didn't realize that the cell division of setting the fruit lasts only 10 days, after that the cells themselves simply get bigger as the fruit matures!!

[Flyingveepixie]

I agree with the above post regarding pruning. It may also be the case for the rest of your trees too that they just need a bit of care rather than a lot of chemical treatment. Do your research carefully before applying chemicals as you may end up doing more harm than good.

Do you know how long ago your trees were last pruned ??

[barn_elms]

This seems to be the worst we have in this part of Abruzzo apart from some codling moth damage to the pears.
The RHS as ever, has good advice on dealing with the fungal cause of the peach problem: Royal Horticultural Society - Gardening Advice: Peach Leaf Curl