Hi Richard,
Since you replied to me, I assume you are responding to my post via your personal experience.
While I think personal experiences can have merit, I don’t think testimonials, by themselves, offer any substantive proof companion planting can eliminate the need for spraying in rainy climates, at least as it relates to growing stone fruits.
There are a number of factors which contribute to the success of a no spray program in stone fruits. Climate by far being the biggest factor. Other factors off the top of my head include: size of the planting, length of time fruit has been grown at the planting site, amount of unmanaged fruit trees around the planting site, amount of urban sprawl located around the planting site (urban sprawl tends to reduce insect pressure of fruit pests), diversity of fruits grown at the planting site (diversity in this sense being a negative, as some pests like SWD and OFM can cause more damage with more diverse fruit plantings).
It can be difficult or impossible to isolate all these factors to any statistical significance when comparing testimonials. Additionally sample size is so small, and lack of an experimental control render testimonials outside the scope of scientific analysis.
Your locale would not be considered a rainy climate with high insect pest pressure. Denver receives about 9" of rainfall during the peach growing season. Compare that to KC (where I live) which receives about 26", almost three times the amount of rain during the peach growing season. This is significant as it relates to insect production.
I’ve been in Denver (and Boulder, which receives about the same rainfall as Denver) and was amazed how few insects there were. I walked through a public garden in Boulder and spoke with some of the gardeners. They don’t have the insect pressure we have here. The difference is stark.
When I mow in the summer, there are so many insects they plug up the intake grills on the tractor. The barn swallows come out in force to gobble up insects as they pour out of the grass.
Here is a video I took this summer of barn swallows swooping to catch insects in front of the tractor. The barn swallows are hard to see in the little window, buy you can see some of them if you watch the video on full screen… I apologize the video turned out sideways, but I can’t figure out how to rotate it correctly on youtube. If you want to watch it, you’ll just have to turn your head sideways ![]()
A lot of these insects are beneficials like lacewings (I know because I have to clean them of the grills of the tractor). Despite all the beneficials, they can’t keep up with the amount of pests we have here. One female PC lays over 100 eggs (most during a time where there aren’t many beneficals to attack adult PC or the eggs she lays). OFM lays up to 200 eggs. It just takes one viable egg to ruin a fruit. Even if beneficials were able to devour 80% of the eggs, the amount of crop loss would be very substantial. Of course things like mating disruption can reduce chemical inputs, but that discussion is probably outside the scope of this thread.
There are a lot of commercial organic farms which raise peaches in Colorado. As far as I know there are none in Kansas or Missouri. The difference is due to climate.
I’m genuinely glad you have found a way to raise food in your locale without any sprays. Also thankful for you that your hard work is being rewarded. I’ve learned over the years that most people can raise some food in their climate without any sprays. In rainy climates like mine, the decision of what type of food to grow is key if no pesticides are to be used. In that sense, without pesticides, any stone fruit would be a non-starter in my locale, regardless of what companion plants were grown.