There is no one right answer to the question in the title of today’s blog article. There are many types of fruit trees, many types of pests, and many types of treatments. So, when you treat a fruit tree for pests depends on all of these variables, whether you are treating with a natural insecticide or pesticide or something else.

As a general rule, most treatments for fruit tree pests are done in the spring or summer. In most cases—there are exceptions—what we do in the fall and winter is prune away anything obviously dead or diseased. We will mention here a few pest treatments, but a full discussion of this massive topic is beyond the scope of this article.

Natural Pesticides

There are some natural pesticides—although we could debate what a natural pesticide is--that people add to their garden which perform a type of biological control. For example, you can add some predatory mites that will colonize in your garden and eat the bad mites which weaken root systems. Some people add lacewings to eat aphids and mealybugs. These are bio-predators that are typically added in the spring at the beginning of the growing season.

Other examples of natural pesticides are bacteria or ladybugs. A simpler low-tech way to lower pest count in fruit trees is to have plants nearby that attract the insects that eat your pests. For example, borage and alyssum are great for this job.

Other Treatments

If you have to spray sulphur on your fruit trees because of fungi, that is typically done in the spring. Most other spray treatments should happen right before or right after blooming. You would not want to spray during bloom or you can affect pollination, and not for the better.

So, the only way to know when to treat fruit trees for pests is to know the tree, the pest, and the treatment because there will be nuances to treatment in each case. Furthermore, depending on where you live, bloom time may vary based on your garden zone. Even the age or size of the tree may play a role in when to treat.

 Art Knapp has 15 locations across British Columbia and is well known as the go-to garden centre for everything garden-related. Art Knapp, himself, began the business in the 1940's, and now, 80 years later, you can find more than he ever dreamed of in our stores. Come and see us on King George Boulevard in Surrey.

If you have any questions about this article or want to talk to us about gardening, just give us a call at (604) 596-9201.