Yea the last time I someone used Chemical sprays it killed all the fish in my pond.

I am sorry that someone killed the fish in your pond. Chemicals can be used irresponsibly and cause all kinds of issues.

Is your Orchard close to the pond? If not, careful spraying should cause no issue.

If you are absolutely against any kind of chemical spray then you may want to reconsider your desire to plant fruit trees. It is very hard to get nice edible fruit without some kind of spray. If you are happy with getting fruit that has blemishes and worm holes, etc, then by all means plant! The environment will be better for your effort.

The bugs are the worst. They will infest every fruit on your tree. They also are typically controlled by chemical spray.

Eastern,

do you know anyone growing apple organically and succesfully in your area? If not, there is a reason why. Myclobutanil is used to spray for cedar rust.

If you do not want to spray, grow disease resistant apple trees. There quite a few of them. You can check Adam County Nursery website for a list of disease resistant trees. Find ones that grow well in your zone. You will win half of the battle already.

The other half is learning how to bag apples. That is an easy and organic way to protect your apples from bugs.

Daemon,

I know I wish there was a better way, I wont mind blemishes, bugs and such, but from researching the rust fungus it seems physically crippling on both Cedar and Apple trees. I will admit, I really wanted them to attract more deer around our property. But definitely would of wan1ted to eat some also. Ill look into sprays and see if Im tempted to purchase them. Thank you

Rphcfb,

There are multiple large orchard farms around, and they are definitely not organic. I appreciate the information though!! I may consider stepping into the chemical field to see my options and do some research on Organic procedures. (Maybe there is some kind of natural oil or peppermint spray I can apply.) Thank you R.

easternmtn(7), I've been growing 2 dwarf apple trees (Liberty and Rubinola) using organic methods. I live in southeastern Pennsylvania. 90-95% of my apples are unblemished at harvest. A few things have made this possible:

I selected my trees for CAR resistance and recommend you consider replacing the varieties you've just planted if they lack resistance. Even my resistant varieties suffered from CAR one season during a particularly wet spring, although fortunately it was only leaves affected and not the fruit.

As mentioned, my trees are on dwarf root stock. If you have just a couple dwarf trees, bagging apples to keep pests at bay is both possible and practical. Not long after petal fall, I bag each apple with cloth bags soaked in Surround (kaolin clay). For me, this method has (so far) kept almost all apples unblemished. I'm enjoying a nice harvest! Bagging fruit is a little labor intensive, but as I see it, it is far less labor intensive than minding the life-cycle of various pests, making frequent inspections, and having spraying schedules.

Squirrels have been my biggest nemeses, but I've finally managed to keep them at bay as well. See my post in the recent thread about squirrels in this forum.

This isn't to say that I might not eventually encounter new pest pressures that require revisiting how I do things or even eventually having to undertake an IPM strategy. But the notion that growing apples organically on the east coast isn't possible simply isn't true. I've experienced this first-hand.

Everyone's growing conditions are different. Your mileage will vary.

Kalmia,

I have not read anyone say growing apples in the east coast is not possible. It is peaches that is close to impossible.

Eastern - bagging with plastic ziplock sandwich bags is chaep and easy. If you google, " gardenweb, bagging apples", many old threads with pictures will show up. Read it at your heart's content.

CAR/Cedar Apple Rust and scab are two common apple issues. When you choose disease resistant varieties, you are in a good position.

By google, gardenweb + whatever fruit topics you want to know, you will get lot of useful info that have been asked by many over the years. Good luck.

By all means go with risease resistant cvs.. I have a Liberty on G11 rooststock and it needs no fungicide apps. for Scab or CAR. within a mile of it's location there are nearly 100 mature cedar trees that annually have CAR galls on them that erupt in the Spring. f you choose to use fungicides for CAR, myclobutanil is very effective if applied just before infection and within 24 hours post-infection (kickback). Coddlig Moth (CM) is effectively battled via bagging the young fruit. Keep in mind with CM that the 1st flight in Spring begins when sunset temps. have reached 62 deg or more and the peak of that flight is about 2 weeks post full bloom. The eggs laid in that 1st flight develop in 8 - 14 days so, some measure to kill those eggs (an oil spray) must be applied 8-14 days after petal fall. After that you're on your own bagging to keep more eggs being laid before you bag. An application of Cyd-X (if it's labeled in your state) is very effective and can be tank mixed with oil. Cyd-X is a biological insecticide like Spinosad or Bt and is very host specific to CM with no detrimental effects to beneficial insects.

Almost forgot, Goldrush is another apple cv you might want to look into for it's multi disease resistance qualities.

Good luck,

Michael