← The orchard
H12-06 · Module 6 of 7 · Pages: 18 · Worksheets: 5
Protecting fruit trees without chemicals
Prevention, birds and beneficial insects, traps and bands — and when you must, copper and sulphur as in organic growing, with harvest intervals and protective gear
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In short
- Prevention first: resistant varieties, spacing, an airy canopy, removing mummies, windfalls and diseased wood.
- Birds and beneficial insects work all season for free: nest boxes for tits, a flower strip, no insecticides.
- Monitor, then act: an inspection every week from April to July, pheromone and sticky traps.
- Copper mainly in dormancy, at bud swell and at leaf fall; sulphur in the growing season, not when above 25 °C is forecast.
- The harvest interval on the label is law: fruit is not picked before it has passed.
- Gloves, glasses, a mask and long clothing; not in blossom and not in wind. Use only products authorised in your country for that use.
What's inside
Chapters
- Prevention: nine-tenths of protection
- Diseases: how to recognise them
- Pests: how to recognise them
- Allies: birds and beneficial insects
- Monitoring: look before you act
- When to spray: copper, sulphur and other permitted products
- Spraying safely
- A year of orchard protection
- Common mistakes
- Printable checklist
Worksheets
- Protection calendar
- Inspection log
- Spray and harvest interval record
- Spray volume and copper calculator
- Orchard protection map
Fields and checkboxes can be filled in with Adobe Acrobat Reader (desktop and mobile), and the calculator adds up by itself. Filling in may not work in some browsers. A print version comes with the screen PDF.
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