We can spend a lot of time growing fruit; feeding, spraying, looking after and harvesting but are we getting the best results from our efforts?
A good question and your taste buds will give you the answer when you eat your own home grown fruit.
I am continually amazed when any of my fruit trees ripen how incredible the difference the taste is to the fruit I can buy in the supermarket.
It’s like its totally different fruit and there are several reasons for this.
Firstly commercially grown fruit is harvested before it ripens so it does not get the flavour of tree ripened fruit that will have more carbohydrates, sugars or Fructose (which is a monosaccharide that is commonly known as fruit sugar).
Fructose naturally occurs in fruits, vegetables, honey, sugar cane, and sugar beets.
This what our taste buds appreciate.
As fruit sold in the supermarket must look perfect with no holes or blemishes which means that the commercial growers are having to spray the crop often and thus you have a range of chemicals that are in the fruit you eat.
Now there are a number of things you can do to improve the health of your fruit trees, vines and berry fruit plants.
Bear in mind that the term fruit is applied to anything that has seeds on the inside which includes tomatoes, beans, pumpkins, cucumbers etc.
Strawberries though we call them fruit are actually vegetables if classified correctly as they have their seeds on the outside on the skin not inside.
Best practice by far is to using only natural foods for any plants including fruiting plants which means animal manures, chicken manure, fish fertilisers, blood & bone and compost.
That’s the basic food then we need to apply potash which is very important for the flowering, fruiting cycle as it not only helps the formation of the fruit but adds to the flavour and juiciness as well.
I know for instance citrus when ripe if they are fairly dry inside, is a good sign that insufficient potash in the growing medium.
To overcome this use a handful or two of Wallys Fruit and Flower power which is a combination of potash and magnesium. Applied once a month during the fruiting cycle will make the world of difference to any fruit crop.
So once the flower buds start to appear a sprinkling every month till harvest.
Another one that I wrote about in March in 2022 was from a reader about using apple cider vinegar as a regular spray over your fruiting plants. Here is what was said back then…
I use Apple Cider Vinegar to keep fungal diseases away, including brown rot, curly leaf, black spot, powdery mildew, bladder plum, sooty mould, scab, allium rust (for garlic, onions, shallots), etc..
For fruit trees, vines, and plants..Vegetables and herbs, including garlic. Also for roses and other ornamentals.
I’ve been doing this since 2009 for my stone and pip fruit trees, berry and grape vines, citrus, garlic, shallot and vegetable plants throughout my large Garden, and including for roses.
Vinegar kills mould – which fungal species are.
It also prevents mould growing back in places that are prone to having fungal problems, so helps avoid ongoing fungal problems.
I use 250mil Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) mixed with 5 litres of non-chlorinated water into a 5 litre sprayer I keep just for ACV.
I spray the mix when fruit tree buds are only just beginning to show in Spring as small bumps.
I don’t spray when blossoms are showing, leaving them to bees, bumblebees and other little critters for pollination..
Once blossoms have finished, I spray fortnightly on the fruit trees and plants which are prone to fungal problems.. ie, brown rot on stone fruit, sooty mould on citrus, black spot on roses, rust on aliums, etc.
I stop once all the fruit on each tree are harvested.
Spray the mix in the evening when the sun has just gone off your trees or plants, so the sun isn’t heating/burning leaves through the liquid spray droplets on them, and there’s time for the spray to dry before nightfall.
Spray the whole tree, vine or plant, under and over leaves, the trunk, branches, twigs, fruit everything..
This will also feed the tree through the leaves as a foliage food.
I do this for all my fruit trees, vines and plants, stone and pip fruit, citrus, grapes, berries, including strawberries, plus for garlic, shallots, onions, courgettes, cucumbers, pumpkins, tomatoes, roses, etc.
No need for gloves or coverings as it’s good for us too.
I keep a 5 litre sprayer filled with the ACV and water mix, so I can pick it up, pump it to build pressure, and I’m ready to spray this mixture that is good for my Garden.
(Thats a good tip as you can leave in the sprayer what is not used for next time and if you are going to follow this advise, using apple cider vinegar a separate sprayer for this purpose is a good investment).
The ACV mix works as a foliage food through the leaves.. with that feeding them, plus fungal problems not being an issue, the trees, vines and plants grow strongly, a healthy, strong tree or plant will repel disease.
maybe repel insects like whitefly and vine hoppers, etc, etc, too.
It’s interesting. I’m continuing to observe. This is why I use ACV throughout my Garden, and have continued since trialing with it in 2009.
Decided to try ACV due to the goodness of the apples that it’s made with, had excellent results and have continued since for brown rot, black spot, curly leaf, allium rust, sooty mould, powdery mildew, etc.
all the fungal problems that occur often in our NZ gardens.
When my trees were producing well, I contacted the head tutor of the horticulture course at the local polytech, asking if I could swap a box of freshly picked Golden Queen Peaches in exchange for him showing me how to Summer prune.
He also has a 6 acre home orchard.
I showed him around my garden. He kept saying, how have you got your trees so healthy.
I told him about using the ACV mix and why.
As he left, he picked a Golden Queen Peach out of the box, bit into it, said, now that’s how a Golden Queen should taste and I’m off home to start using Apple Cider Vinegar throughout my garden.
IMPORTANT. Unborn Babies at risk.
I am amazed at the Government department, EPA is in regards to our health and the health of unborn babies.
A herbicide chemical chlorthal-dimethyl, also known as Dacthal has recently been banned in USA and Australia because The US Environmental Protection Agency said unborn babies whose pregnant mothers were exposed to the chemical, sometimes without even knowing the exposure had occurred, could experience changes to fetal thyroid hormone levels.
Those changes were generally linked to low birth weight, impaired brain development, decreased IQ, and impaired motor skills later in life, some of which could be irreversible, it said.
See this link.
In NZ it is primarily used in commercial settings to control grasses and other weeds, particularly in onion crops, forest nurseries, and ornamental plants and this may include crops such as broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and turf (lawns), stopping weeds at the shooting or sprouting stage.
What is our EPA response? From a search on Internet I found:
Regulatory Action
The New Zealand EPA’s red alert follows an emergency order issued by the United States Environmental Protection Agency on August 7, 2024, which banned the use and sale of products containing chlorthal-dimethyl
This action was taken due to the risk of thyroid hormone changes in unborn children, which could lead to low birth weight and irreversible impacts on brain development and motor skills
The EPA has expressed significant concerns about the potential health risks associated with these herbicides, particularly their effects on unborn children.
As a result, they have urged people to stop using products containing chlorthal-dimethyl and to consider alternatives. (WHAT?)
If use of these products cannot be avoided, the EPA advises taking precautions to minimize exposure, especially for pregnant individuals or those who may become pregnant. These precautions include:
- Restricting access to sprayed areas
- Ensuring no one else is present during spraying
- Staying out of treated fields for at least 25 days after application
In response to these developments, the New Zealand EPA has established a working group to review the use of DCPA in the country and determine what actions, if any, should be taken
Currently, the EPA is consulting with affected parties and gathering information on the extent of DCPA use in New Zealand
It’s important to note that while the EPA has issued this warning, they currently lack comprehensive information on the import and usage of these herbicides in New Zealand. (WHAT; is that not what we tax payers pay their salaries for? Is it another stuff up like they allowed imported kiwi fruit pollen into NZ costing millions for Kiwi fruit growers)
Farmers and other users are encouraged to seek alternative products and follow the EPA’s safety recommendations if use of these herbicides cannot be avoided.
It reminds me that it took NZ Govt EPA, 16 years to ban DDT after other western countries banned the chemical. (The delay was caused by commercial interests in that case the farmers using DDT to control grass grubs in their paddocks.)
It is tragic if commercial interests are allowed to override the safety of babies, children and our health?
If our food producers and farmers are using DCPA on their pasture or vegetable crops then the chemical is in all our food chain putting pregnant or soon to be pregnant woman at risk for their babies?
Sprayed over food crops or grasses means it is in the food we eat, cattle that eat the grass…. becaujse plants take in whatever they are sprayed with, be it foliage feeds or chemical controls.
Should women be concerned?
The EPA of Australia and USA think so with immediate bans of use and sales.
If it can effect babies in the womb what affects on children and adults eating foods that contain the chemical?
My personal dealings with EPA that took 9 months to approve a new application for the very safe and natural product, Wallys Neem Tree Oil.
That on advice from my consultants I voluntarily removed it from the market while they assessed the application (under urgency, according to them) costing me thousands and along at the same time a perfect storm with the covid problems, trading and supplies, which very nearly bankrupted my company. (I estimate it will take another couple of years of trading to get back to where we used to be before those events, EPA was the straw that nearly broke the camel’s back.)
Not only that but the company of technical advisors I hired, produced a peer reviewed study from USA on natural cold pressed Neem Oil (which ours is) that proved it was completely safe to people and the environment – which EPA completely ignored (that proved my original compliance was correct) and they made their assessment presumably on what they wanted to.
After receiving my new compliance information they sent me a letter thanking me for removing the product from sale which they said means they would not fine me etc. Their letter said that:
I was liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 months or a fine not exceeding $500,000 and, if the offense is a continuing one, to a further fine not exceeding $50,000 for every day or part of a day during which the offense has continued. Wow!
One of the new conditions was; Wally Super Neem Oil, which now is the only Neem Oil brand that has the restriction, that home gardeners cannot use a airplane or helicopter to spray it on their gardens?
Their wording ‘Ground application only’ Which interpreted you have to stand on the ground to spray it onto plants.
Does the below tell you something about our EPA?
When a product has known adverse affect on unborn and is Immediately banned in counties that we associate with but here its advised not to enter fields sprayed with it for at least 25 days?
No mention of concerns about food crops pregnant woman may eat or dairy products they consume?
Image credit: Colin + Meg
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