Lazy care for fruit trees.

I've added more trees and now have about 15 fruit trees on my property. I'm a very lazy gardener and am never going to be able to spray each variety of fruit with the correct spray at the correct time.

They got neemed a few months ago when I last did my roses and that's it so far. I have got some copper spray to use on them, but want to do them all at the same time, not be in and out every other week looking for a particular tree.

Can anyone recommend a half-assed care program for the trees that will be better than nothing? I have a mix of young & established apples, feijoas, mandarins, pear, plum, apricot, peach & almond from memory.

You're supposed to SPRAY them? - Ekk, i'm about year behind even putting fertiliser on mine.

*joins mel's half-ased care program*

add to favourites and watches as well

Here's my lazy mans minimal spray programme.

Mid winter: Everything gets a spray of mineral oil.
1 week later: Everything gets a spray of Lime Sulphur.
Bud swell: spray copper - this must be before bud burst - and sorry, you have to time it for every tree type.
After bud burst and into flowering: 1 spray of copper - Spray before/after bees have visited if during flowering.
After fruit set: 1 spray of copper.

That's it. that's all I do unless I spot a problem that I cant easily cure without spray e.g. citrus I can spot aphid infestations before it gets out of hand and most often can deal with it by wiping affected new leaves with my thumb and squishing them. This actually works if you catch the infestation before it gets out of hand so you're only dealing with a few leaves.

The trick is to spot things before they get out of hand.
1st hint: Watch the new growth like a hawk. Many pests often go for the new tender shoots and leaves.
2nd hint: Look UNDER the leaves. 8 times out of 10, that's where they are.
3rd hint: Look for curled misshapen new leaves - they distort because of something injected by aphids and other pests as they are sucking the life out of your leaves.

Additionally, I now have to spray copper more often on my pear as it has had fire blight this last season. This might not be a great long term plan so I'm hoping I can progressively chop affected parts out of the tree.

Last couple of seasons I've kept a small spray bottle for hitting individual infestations with oil, pyrethrum or whatever. I use this on individual infestations and then only if I couldn't deal with it by squishing or removing badly infested leaves. Again - it's used on a tree by tree basis so your general one spray for whole orchard approach is out the window.

I have noticed that since I have greatly reduced the sprays I use (mostly the pesticides - I don't use these unless I see no other way) I have seen many many more lady-birds and native insects. These are helping to deal with aphid and other infestations so I'm even more reluctant to spray.

I have a mixture of fruit trees, citrus, berries etc and have never sprayed. Have all the different sprays in the garage but never got around to it. Only problem I have had is a little curly leaf, so I stripped all the leaves and it never came back with the new growth. I also gave up spraying my roses three years ago and they are beautiful.
I imagine more good luck than good management but it works for me

Any recommendations for a good fertiliser fr fruit trees and how often to apply

Blood n Bone and sheep shit.
In early spring and for citrus in Autumn as well.

Glad it's not just me, lol!
I thought I would get told off for neglecting my trees.

So I'm also not the only one who buys the product and then doesn't use it!

my garden shed is a chemical hazard zone, full of unopened bottles of stuff that should never have been bottled so I can put it in the shed
god help the neighbourhood if it ever catches fire - dead zone for miles

Skin - I think Environment councils will take sprays/fertilisers/poisons so you could get rid of them.