Beneficials
One of the reasons to grow organically is to be gentle on the environment. Over time, this promotes biodiversity in your orchard. Most of the bugs that are out to get your fruit have natural enemies themselves. In a sprayed orchard, broad spectrum chemical insecticides kill almost all pests, including the beneficial ones. Lady bugs are our best friend. Lady bugs love aphids. They also eat scale and spider mites. When you don’t spray, lady bugs prosper. Non-harmful mite species dine on harmful ones. Ants herd up flocks of aphids for dinner. There are hundreds of bugs who want to dine on those species that are trying to dine on your fruit.
When you don’t spray, you spare the beneficials and they thrive. Think about it, the beneficials will thrive on the harmfuls pests because they are attracted to them. After all, if you are a Lady Bug, aphids are dinner. This is natures way of maintaining balance. And that is what organic farming is all about. A bug hole here or there on your fruit really doesn’t matter in the greater scheme of things.
The use of compost tea as a spray is found to be helpful in building the population of beneficial microbes on your trees to ward off bugs and fungal diseases. A simple tea may be made in a way which is similar to making “sun tea.” Simply scoop a gallon of finished compost into 5 gallons of water and let it brew in the sun for 10 days to two weeks. Strain the brew and apply as a foliar spray every couple of weeks.
