I usually ask the Fruit Club members who are using
compost tea what results or differences they’ve noticed from either this
year’s or prior year’s growth. Saturday was ‘compost tea day.’ One member told me that this year he noticed there were
no pear slugs or pearworms. I also have pear and cherry trees, a few more cherry
trees this year than last.
I used to hand pick the pear slugs one by one. It can get to be a chore if you have many trees; it’s messy, time consuming, and
you always miss a few. When trees grow tall it’s a real hassle. This is also the first year that I’ve used
compost tea and it’s also the first
year I don’t have any pear slugs.
They’ve been in my pear and cherry
trees each previous year. I applied
the compost tea as a soil drench.
I thought I’d use Surround on the pear trees this year but changed my mind. I have another pear problem; pear blister mite. It’s terrible and can defoliate the entire
tree if not taken care of. The
mites get in between the leaf layers and suck out the
plant juice, eventually turning the leaves black. You have to pick off each affected leaf. I should have sprayed the trees with
sulfur in the fall before leaf drop, but I became busy and
missed the opportunity. But since I
soil drenched the pears with compost tea, using
a little more on the pears than on the other fruit trees, I see the pears still
have some pear blister mite, but
it’s not as severe as last year. And I have more pears this year than
last. I also think my pears are a problem to pollinate. There are many disbelievers in the Fruit Club who are
now using compost tea because they’re listening to what the
other members are saying about using it, or they tried it and are noticing something good is
happening. They’re not sure
how or why it’s “working” just that it is. Some members originally
came for 3 gallons and now take 10, or 10 gallons and now use 50. Judi
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