Hi,
My name is Ben, this is my first post here, and I am new to growing fruit trees except for blackberries and raspberries. I am located in Eastern Missouri, just South of the Missouri River, about an hour outside of St. Louis. It’s humid and hot in summer, late cold snaps in Spring, and rocky clay soil.
In the past three years, at a new house I have planted 4 apples (Liberty, Arkansas Black, Fuji, unknown forgotten farm store tree), 3 Cherries (Montmorency, Romeo in wine barrel, Juliet in wine barrel), 2 Plums (Methley, Ozark Premier), 2 Peaches (Redhaven, Reliance), 2 Pears (Bartlett, Moonglow). In addition to this, I have a 20 foot raspberry hedge, a 10 foot blackberry hedge, 10 Blueberries all in raised beds or containers, a small asparagus patch, and a small strawberry patch.
The impression that I have received throughout my life is that the Missouri Ozarks is not the best location for growing fruit, but I am not convinced that it is an insurmountable challenge.
A lot of work has been completed to pretty much fill my suburban backyard with these edible plants to try to make success more likely. The holes that I have dug for each tree were more along the lines of large pits. It was all pickaxe and pry bar work to dig each hole. The pits for each tree measured roughly 4’ x 4’ by 4’. I understand that many people recommend not replacing or amending your soils, but I felt that it was necessary to do so on my property. If I did not do so, my holes would have been half empty due to the amount of rocks and boulders that were removed in digging these holes. The soil that I filled the tree holes with was bulk garden mix from local landscape supply shops. The removed rocks and boulders were then used to make raised beds for my berries and other edibles.
Due to the large amount of work completed in planting, I would love to be able to just now kick back and relax. Maybe in a few years, get a little buzz from some homegrown cider and satisfy some munchies with tasty fruit leather. That said, it is my understanding that my beloved State of Missouri, might not want to cooperate with my plans.
This leads to my questions for the forum.
I’m looking to purchase another sprayer to begin spraying my trees. I have a sprayer I use for herbicides in my front yard, but that sprayer is not great and does not enter my back yard. Would anyone have suggestions for a sprayer to purchase that is <$100?
Also, I am not that concerned about trying to be organic, but I am concerned about minimizing work time. Would anybody have any thoughts on sprays to use maybe two or three times a year, that might not lead to a yard of perfect fruit, but help to at least protect some harvest. So the question would be, what one to three spray products would you consider to be essential, and when would be the best two or three times a year to spray these products. Also, I would like to be able to use any products on all of my trees if possible. I have seen some things that are not good for some trees and some not good for others. Any recommendations? Or am I going to be left severely disappointed if I don’t commit to an elaborate spray regiment?
I have seen Scott’s basic spray schedule as I have lurked on this site for a while, and it seemed fairly extensive and elaborate to a newcomer. However, I would like to say, thank you to Scott for maintaining this forum and sharing so much information. It is really appreciated.
Other than that, thank you to everyone else for providing me so much to read while I fill downtime at my office job.