I haven’t done much research but I try to provide abundant and diverse habitat. My trees are deep mulched (mostly spent hay cuz that’s what I got, and pasture growth is cut several times a season with a high-wheel mower and raked into the rows), lots of bags of leaves (from other areas) are dumped in piles to augment the diversity of mulch, some brush piles, several rock piles scattered around, and I leave all herbaceous perennials (and annuals) standing through winter and don’t cut back until spring. There’s a fair bit of standing pasture in the “yet to be planted” section of the orchard. I probably ought to keep some patches of bare ground for the ground nesters. I’d love to hear more ideas on what else one could do in this regard.
KS,
Actually pesticides were used extensively back then. It’s been discussed quite a bit on the forum, but lead arsenic was the main one. In 1929, 30 million pounds of lead arsenate were sprayed on fields and orchards annually. By 1941, 60 million pounds were sprayed annually.
I couldn’t find any figures for Iowa specifically, but here is an example of a booklet put out by the Iowa Dept. of Agriculture recommending lead arsenate sprays (below is a link of a conglomeration of these annual booklets). These booklets were common for many states of that era. The booklet I reference starts on page 493, titled “Spraying Tree Fruits”
You may notice they mention sprayed apple trees produced 2.8 times more apples than unsprayed trees. Many people wonder how pesticides could be pushed so hard back then (I’ve read old materials which suggested it was poor managers who didn’t spray) but it’s easy to understand in the context of that era, where harvest losses were substantial and food was not plentiful.
In 1935, the FDA actually did a radio program where they suggested the old “A is for Apple” school rhyme be changed to “A is for Arsenate/ Lead if you please/ Protector of apples/ Against archenemies.”
I think what you are trying to do with your orchard is great and hopefully you will be able to find organic techniques which work for you (as Scott and others have done) but just wanted to clarify that old orchards were sprayed with pesticides, even in Iowa.
I thought wrong! Sorry to hear it but thanks for setting me straight. The wiki page on Lead Arsenate also states:
The search for a substitute was commenced in 1919, when it was found that its residues remain in the products despite washing their surfaces. Alternatives were found to be less effective or more toxic to plants and animals, until 1947 when DDT was found. The use of lead arsenate in the US continued until the mid-1960s. It was officially banned as an insecticide on August 1, 1988.
Morel mushrooms growing in old apple orchards that had been treated with lead arsenate may accumulate levels of toxic lead and arsenic that are unhealthy for human consumption.
Old apple orchards often become housing developments where the heavy use of lead and arsenic in the past has created concerns and sometimes produced very unsafe levels of soil contamination. At least one of these old orchards sites became a “superfund” cleanup site.
From what I understand the unsafe contamination levels often occur in the areas where the chemicals were made or mixed in huge vats and pumped to other parts of the orchard with underground pipes which often leaked.
A publication from VPI discusses the history and the problem:
http://www.deq.state.va.us/Portals/0/DEQ/Land/RemediationPrograms/Brownfields/Weaver1-195-1-PB-8r.pdf
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An orchard walk from this morning. A mixture of things blooming and fruiting. Much of my crop was damaged by late freeze this year but plenty was left over. Many of these are grown spray free here.
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Do you spray your pears? I see what looks curculio feeding bites on that last picture.
I got away without spraying pears for several years then the curculio and stinkbugs showed up too densely. I wonder if it was not the stone fruit in the next row that pumped up their numbers. Curculio normally will not reproduce in pome fruits as the growing fruit will crush the egg/worm. The only exception I have seen is in very soft fleshed apples including some crabs.
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I didn’t spray pesticide on the pears. Yes the PC mark them up and get crushed in the process. I’m hitting the pears with mancozeb for rust later this week since it allows 3 sprays per year and at least 57 days prior to harvest. Rust has not been a problem so far.
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Yes that is the hornworm you don’t want to kill. I would put him on the grapes where he is alive and happy but doing less damage than on tomatoes. When those hatch all the horn worms will be dead soon afterwards!
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I saw the exact same thing yesterday. I left him to suffer.
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I sure hope so, parasitic wasps every where, lol
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I have some that fly around looking for Japanese beetle grubs, which I have tons of! I love those darned wasps 
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Many of my plums I’m removing as they are to much work for to little gain! Chainsaw pruned a bunch. If I cannot grow something with minimal input it’s not very valuable to me. The purpose of farming is to make our lives better.
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What kinds of plums were these?
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All kinds goose plums, bounty plums, American plums, Japanese plums there were many types. They had formed large plum thickets in parts of the orchard and needed removed. The fruits are very difficult to grow for fruit. Plums take great care as pests such as plum curculio make them difficult to enjoy.
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Thank you for the explanation. I do believe plum curculio is a pest we don’t have here, my biggest enemy are late frosts and birds.
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They make many holes in the plums so by greatly reducing the number of plums I can focus more on other fruits and the plums I choose to keep. The trees are very happy and healthy but my goal is to get mostly bug free fruit! When pests are to big of a problem the effort needed is increased or the poison needed is excessive. Would rather have a smaller number in this situation.
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I understand you. I like trees very much but a fruit tree without (good) fruit is a sad, pointless thing. I am very patient but there is a limit on what I am willing to tolerate.
For example, I am not sad at all that this winter an avalanche ripped out three of my apple trees. Idared was always full of aphids, Pilot was a sickly tree with not enough roots and Thurgauer Weinapfel did not bear at about 18 years! So I say good riddance, three trees less that always cause work for no gain.
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These are methods we use and results we get with plums Bagging plums with bread bags. Open to suggestions/comments . Plum curculio is a formidable adversary.
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