In The Garden - a fruit tree question

Dear Sir;

     I have 5 year old lemon , mango, custard apple, peach, nectarine, pear, sapodilla, pomegranate trees. Most of my fruit trees are dropping their leaves and fruits at their early time. Please advise me what to use on them to prevent these in organic way. 

Hi,

Thanks for the question.

Many things that could be going wrong with your fruit trees:

The first thing that I think is happening is water. I think your watering too much. That would cause leaves to drop. You say all of them are doing the same thing?

Check your water.

How are you watering

drip, hose, bubbler, sprinkler?

Should be using a drip, 2 gallons per hour head, water once per week for about 1/2 hr to 1 hr depending on your soil.

Too much water will drown the roots and cause the leaves to turn yellow and drop.

Are the trees drooping?  That would be not enough water.

If they are dropping fruit, that can also be too much water.

Like I said it can be many things, probably a combination of things that you are doing wrong.

What are you fertilizing them?

You do not say that you are taking care of them organically only that you want to solve the problem organically. You must do both.

You need to fertilize the fruit trees properly with rock dust, live compost, a good organic fruit tree fertilizer and proper mulch (i only recommend azalea/gardenia mix as a mulch).

Here is an Integrated Program for Fruit Tree Health

Soil Web

Organic Gardener's like to say, "the plants are only as healthy as the soil".

Buy products that have microbes the make minerals available in a soluble form. Microbes also fix nitrogen, and n=many microbes increase the health of the plants. Mycorrhizal fungi live in the root hairs of plants and provide the plants with water, phosphorus, a range of minerals as well as immunity to diseases in exchange for the plants providing the microbes with sugar and protein that they need.

A particular bacteria called  Archaea, if found in the soil will digest various pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Fungi are also good at this as well as destroying diseases that are found in the soil and also various insects that are pests to trees.

I cannot talk enough about compost properly made with a variety of microbes and bacteria, fungi needed for proper fruit tree growth.

One just needs to understand how compost works and the difference between growing compost for the microbes and growing compost for fungi.

One produces compost to provide the soil with the missing microbes found in compost with animal manures. To make compost for fungi, one must allow the compost to settle down and to have the microbes slowly die down and then fungi can be added to allow the fungi to grow in a cool dark place. Many companies sterilize the compost and then introduce fungi.

 Fruit trees love compost especially if it is alive and minerally rich.

Fruit trees should not be getting high nitrogen fertilizers. High Nitrogen inhibits mineral uptake to plants.

Remember that you must deal with the cause and the effects will disappear. Deal with the effects and the cause is still there.

There are many Beneficial insects that you can use to control various pests that attack the trees. However, they will die if exposed to the toxins in the air, water, pesticides. So they will have a limited effect.

There are many biological controls you can use to control psyllid and other pests.

Botanical pesticides are useful if correctly used . One of the safest is called Pyganic to humans but be careful when spraying it will also kill beneficial.

Foliar sprays are one of the fastest ways to get nutrient into your fruit trees.

I spray Superseaweed, Agri-Gro, Maxi Crop, Nitron A-35, Fungi-Gro, Azo Extrem Gardening Microbes, Fungi Perfecti to name a few. Of course, I always recommend you spray Compost Tea and or Rock Dust Tea. Another good spray is Milk. 1 cup milk per gallon water. Trees need calcium.

I started saying that most folks over water their fruit trees. It is so important that I said it again.

If you are not sure if you are over watering then just reduce the water by 10% and see if you notice any difference. Take a look at the soil and see if it is wet. If it is always wet, that is bad. Fruit trees should be allowed to dry in between waterings. Fruit trees do better with once a week watering, especially if they are in the good soil. If they are growing in a bad clay soil, you need to amend the soil with compost.

I mention rock dust a lot because it is so essential to the health of the soil and plants. You should get a variety of sources of rock dust so that you will then end up with an excellent range of minerals since no one rock dust is complete in all the minerals. In southern California, we have our own rock Dust source called Agri-Min, located in Encinitas. I also use Azomite, Glacial Rock Dust, Gypsum (yes it is a form of rock dust), MSR Soft Rock Phosphate ( a naturally mined rock dust), naturally mined Magnesium, GSR Calcium, Planters trace mineral, Fertrell, a natural and organic mineral source. These are just a few I use, but it is a good start. Just Google these and get growing!

Andy Lopez

Invisible Gardener

Any questions? Email me andylopez@invisiblegardener.com