We have a small orchard where we grow apples, figs, cherries, plums,
pears and filberts. In addition, we grow blueberries, grapes, red currants,
gooseberries and
strawberries. And of course we are graced with a full collection of native
and non-native blackberries and native huckleberries.
I prune the trees (except the filberts) and blueberries during a warm spell in January or
February. The filberts don't need pruning unless you want to chase the
suckers that they form.
I don't spray at all. For years that was okay. In the last couple
of years we've been hit badly by apple maggot. I tried lures and sticky
traps without much result. Then I tried using nylon footies
last year and they worked great. You feel pretty silly putting little socks
on all the fruit in late June but it makes for wonderful bug-free fruit.
I've had problems the last couple of years with scab on the pears. This year
I very carefully raked up and removed all the leaves after they dropped in
hopes of removing the main source of spores for this coming year. We'll see
how it goes.
We reliably get the most fruit from the apples, pears, grapes, gooseberries,
red currants, strawberries and
blueberries.
