Hi Persephone,

Apple growers seem to be divided into two camps, organic and the rest of
us. I am
not a strict organic guy. I have seen the results of other hobbyist apple
growers, who try to be organic, and I find the results disappointing. They
are content with losing a portion of their crop, whereas, I want to preserve
as much as I can. I use a combination of spraying and organic methods (sticky
balls, traps, etc.). In my area,
these organic methods are not enough to fully protect the fruit. I don't feel
my health
is endangered by spraying, when using certain precautions. One is to stop
spraying a few weeks before harvest to give the sun time to burn off the
chemicals and the wind
and rain to do a similar job. As a secondary precaution, I wash all my fruit
with a mild
soap solution. Do I remove the chemicals 100 per cent? Probably not, but the
residue
is very small. The chemicals do not penetrate the skin, so if it still of
concern, you can peel the skin off before eating.

I never buy store apples, but for them, I would certainly take the second and
third steps. I don't trust the 'organic' label on apples. I suspect some of
them may be sprayed occasionally with chemicals, if a farmer is in danger of
losing his crop.

The seeds are not susceptable to spray contamination, and besides, who eats
them
anyways?

Sherwin D.

Persephone wrote:

On Sat, 14 Jan 2006 14:40:12 -0600, "Ron H" wrote:

OK, It's a moderately nice January day and I finished pruning the apple
trees. Looks like it's going to be a great year for apples but I need to
know the what, when, where, and how much of spraying apples trees to fend
off both predator and disease!

Any advice, references, etc???

Ron H.
West Central Wisconsin


Piggy-backing on Ron's question, I've always heard that apples are THE
most sprayed of all crops, and that one should avoid the seeds and
peel at the very least. And preferably eat organic apples.

Is this true about the spraying? Does it apply only to large
commercial orchards (maybe Ron's IS a l.c.o.).

Looking forward to the wisdom of Those Who Know.

Persephone

--

A king can stand people fighting but
he can't last long if people start
thinking.

Will Rogers