that’s good to know, especially in areas impossible to make a profit without the use of conventionals
You are absolutely right, on a large scale I am not sure of the ecological benefits, but for a smaller operation as mine it works fine.
I buy organic. I grow veg and fruit year-round un-sprayed with anything (with the exception of neem on tomatoes occasionally).
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I’m glad it works in your area. 
BTW, neem is a surfactant and technically not a pesticide in California unless doped with an insecticide. It does have a significant track record controlling newborn/weak nymphs and adults of several pest insects.
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I grow ‘Pink Lady’ apples and have never sprayed anything on them. Not sure if that helps anyone. If I had to spray them I probably wouldn’t grow them. 
Neem allows me to bring in a tomato crop in extreme cases. Control and/or balance is all that I’m after, eradication is the furthest thing from nature or from my mind.
For pests that were never here before man, eradication was never an issue.
I am growing our native Hollyleaf Cherry, and I’m very impressed with the total lack of pests and frequent visits by “good” insects on that plant.
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Haldog, I agree, so far my Enterprise is my most bug resistant apple. I really like the flavor here in Dallas
Enterprise has really thick skin which I hear is a big detraction to eating them but maybe its upside is keeping the bugs at bay… sounds like a good trade-off to me. My Enterprise graft I added this past spring.
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Interesting read, I am apple ignorant for the most part but see them listed at bee vectoring technology.
The basic concept is spores of naturally occurring fungi are dispersed by bumble bees during pollination. These spores colonize the fruit and leaf tissues early and prevent some insects and diseases through competition. The fungi are not harmful to plants, people or the bees. In fact many plants already have types of beneficial or benign fungi living within their tissues, but their impact is not well understood even to science, and completely unknown to growers. And from this perspective, where unseen factors likely affect the outcome to at least some degree: success when walking the fine line of low impact growing may be more about luck: which of many thousands of (non symptom causing) fungi are colonizing the plant is not a question anyone outside of a dedicated lab could answer.
To me it is a beautiful idea; protect the fruit from its inception in a way that is more efficient and effective than if the same spores were applied with a sprayer.
A recent article.
http://www.businessreviewusa.com/technology/5525/Bee-Vectoring-Technology-under-the-microscope
The skin is a distraction, but not a big one. The flesh is crisp and juicy. The flavor is good not great-primarily sweet, but improves with storage. The big advantage for me is the lack of disease. No fireblight and almost no fruit rots. This is on an espaliered tree, so perhaps that good air circulation helps with those. I’ve got one other enterprise growing in an open center, but it hasn’t fruited yet so I don’t really know if it’s the tree or the tree form, or a combination, that’s kept the diseases away.
I have heard that Pink Lady grows better down there. I grow “Cripps Pink” up here (same variety) and it gets scab, but I’m just feeding my family so I don’t care that much. It may be developing more antioxidants that way. It really tastes great, even if it looks pretty bad.
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Cripps Pink/Pink Lady is very popular here in S. California. Crisp, slightly tangy and a very nice eating and cooking apple. Very precocious, sets heavily. Nice apple for us.
Patty S.
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Thought this post would be a good place to reintroduce the work of Dr. Reams. Here is a quote from this article.
Reams observed that if he took care to balance the soil sufficiently to achieve these test values, his crops would be free of insect, disease, and weed infestations; they would be nutritionally sound, give excellent yield, be profitable, and be repeatable.
You can read about folks following his principles and getting these results. Rephrasing the famous quote: “It’s the soil, stupid.” That doesn’t mean I don’t reach for the Spinosad, neem or pyrethrum, but that is where I’m headed.
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If you prescribe to the age of enlightenment and real science in general you might also want to check out this. Carey Reams - The Skeptic's Dictionary
Yes Alan, we have had this discussion. If you want to be skeptical, they have the ‘fake news’ you have been hoping for.
We all are weary of ‘fighting’ insect and disease pressures. I thought some folks here may be interested in knowing about another approach, esp because it has been tried and shown very successful. It takes a while to get there but it is doable. I grow for those I love so I am HIGHLY motivated.
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… in very specific climate.
Thanks JustAnne4,
There are a lot of interesting frameworks like that and many can help us improve soil and orchard quality over time. I have added minerals to my soil and lots of things improved. I grow for my family so I really want high quality too, and I am also motivated to keep trying experiments over time. Steve Solomon has created access for people to check out agricultural theories from the likes of Sir Albert Howard, biodynamics, permaculture, William Albrecht and others in his soil library. It’s very interesting:
https://soilandhealth.org/
John S
PDX OR
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Yes Richard, but the soil is a product in large measure of the ‘specific climate’.
Eg. Y’all can hold Ca and other nutes in your soils that we can’t because of our abundant rain. The result is, if we don’t apply Ca, stuff rots, like tomato blossom end rot and even rotting and splitting of fruit because (according to Reams) Ca is needed for strong cellular structure in plants. Ergo, one can conjecture that the reason for fruit rotting in high moisture areas may loss of soil Ca, making fruit vulnerable to fungal deterioration. Just a thought.
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Yes John. I have ‘Gardening when It Counts’. Love it. Big fan. He is so practical but in my thinking goes a little too far with his ‘humanure’, LOL.
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