Supply Sources
Some supplies can be hard to find. The aim of this wiki is to be a reference by the particular supply of good places where it can be found, and also for general good sources in certain categories. As with the other wikis please add/edit. Especially you @Chris_in_GA since this reference page is your idea
It is starting based on my list from my low-impact spray schedule so it initially has lots of big holes. Hopefully it will fill up!
General good supply sources
These places sell many kinds of supplies.
- Gempler’s - Pruning, sprayers, and tools
- Peaceful Valley Farm Supply - Good organic supplies
- Fedco Organic Growers Supply - A good organic growers supply in Maine, particularly good for cover crops and fertilizers.
- Seven Springs Farm - A good small outfit from Virginia specializing in organic products.
- Snow Pond Farm Supply - Another good small outfit specializing in organic products. Located in MA.
- Orchard Valley Supply - An emphasis on vineyard and trellis supplies.
- Oesco Inc - all kinds of farm stuff and orchard/nursery products including Dr. Farwell products
Synthetic sprays
- Keystone Pest Solutions - stocks many harder to find synthetic sprays.
- Do my own pest control - another good source for sprays and other insect controls etc.
- Martin’s Produce Supplies – Excellent pricing on spray chemicals. They sell more types/brands than what is listed on their website. Send for their free catalogue or download the PDF from their site for a complete listing. Also have a good selection of nursery and greenhouse supplies.
Organic sprays
General sources
Particular sprays
- Surround - Seven Springs has a good price. Make sure you check the shipping wherever you get it from, its a lot because its heavy. Schlabachs and Peaceful Valley are other places with reasonable prices including shipping on Surround.
- Spinosad - Monterey Garden Insect Spray (link is to Amazon listing, many places sell it).
- Tritek - get Monterey oil (Amazon listing). Bigger quantity from Seven Springs.
- Serenade - for small quantity get Bayer Advanced Serenade (Amazon again).
- Most copper products are similar. Kocide 3000 is a bit more effective in terms of how much copper you need to use.
- Lime-sulphur can currently be hard to find due to obscure EPA issues; my local garden center has it but yours may not. Peaceful Valley sells it but shipment options are limited. Keystone also sells it. Its not super hard to make your own if you have experience handling dangerous chemicals. The pet dip version is also supposedly the same compound (but 4x as concentrated).
- There are many sulfur products available, either in liquid or DF (dry flowable) form. Bonide Sulfur is a reasonable DF product; I use a commercial version in larger quantity, check GrowOrganic.com or Keystone Pest Solutions.
- Cyd-X / Codling Moth Granulosis is available in small(er) quantity from Peaceful Valley now. Peaceful Valley also sells many of the other things above. Harmony also sells Cyd-X in the small jar.
- Raw neem - can be hard to find, most horticultural neem you find is refined with many of the good compounds removed. Dyna-Grow and neemresource.com are two that have a good reputation. Raw neem can also be used in place of soap or oil for aphids, spider mites, scale, and other small pests, just make sure to add a bit of dish soap to the spray or it will clog your sprayer something ugly. It can be solid at colder temperatures so may need warming up to get it flowing. Keep any you are not using for that season in the refrigerator as it will eventually spoil.
Non-Spray insect control
- Codling moth mating disruption - Nomate codling moth spirals are currently sold by Arbico. They are expensive but a bag lasts 5-10 years for a backyard grower; keep in freezer.
- OFM mating disruption - Nomate OFM spirals are at Gemplars. But, Gemplars only ships these to a few states unfortunately. Similar price and freeze them like CM spirals.
- Beneficial Nematodes - Arbico has the best product I have found, but they are expensive.
- Great Lakes IPM is the ultimate source for lures and mating disruption. Too bad they don’t ship to all states.
- The Home Orchard Society is selling Surround-soaked footies for protecting fruits from bugs. These have worked well for many people.
Tools: Pruning / spraying / irrigation / grafting / etc
These places stock a wide range of orchard tools.
- AM Leonard
- Gempler’s
- Johnny’s Seeds
- Peaceful Valley Farm Supply
- Grower’s Supply
- Greenhouse Mega Store
- Jordan Seeds
- Harmony Farm Supply
- Lehman’s
- Gardener’s Supply Company
Sprayers
Irrigation
Pruners
- The Pruner Warehouse focuses on pruners obviously!
- DuroKon - Sells the Zenport electronic pruners and other pruners
Grafting
- Peaceful Valley has a good collection of grafting supplies/tools
- Orchard Valley has a good collection of hard-to-find tools including a cleft grafting tool and parafilm.
- Garden Marker pens - these are UV resistant and you can write variety names right on the wood and it will last all season. Amazon or Greenhouse Mega Store sell them.
- Doc Farwell’s Grafting Compound is a useful thick latex cover for grafts. It is somewhat hard to find these days; Harmony Farm Supply sells the quart size which will last for several years. Northwest Cider Supply is another source now.
Root Cloning
- Kelp4less sells root cloning powder which should work for honeyberry, blueberry, fejoia, etc
Animal Control
- Wildlife Control Supplies has many traps and deterrents.
Bird Control
- Bird-X has many good products including woven netting which is more durable than the usual plastic bird netting.
Deer control
- Wildlife Control Supplies has fencing and chemical deterrents.
- Deerbusters has many deer control supplies including fencing and Plantskydd, an effective liquid deterrent.
- Motion-activated sprinklers can be very effective if set up carefully. Good ones include Orbit 62100 Yard Enforcer, Contech Scarecrow and Hoont. They are sold at many places including Amazon.
Squirrel traps
- Kania traps - these lethal traps generally work well.
- For lethal tube traps, Wildlife Control Supplies is the source.