I have planted 4 apple trees and 2 pear trees since we moved to our hobby farm 11 years ago.  Over the years, only 2 of the original trees survived and I have been replacing them with trees I purchased from Canadian Tire or Home Depot.

I found that it is better to pay more ($20 more) for an older tree (4 years old vs yearling).  If you start with a yearling, you could wait up to 8 years for it to start bearing fruit!!  Too long!

Since we have sheep, I have been piling the sheep manure in between the trees to cover the grass and weeds.  I am sure the trees would benefit from the sheep manure compost and guess what, 5 of the trees are flowering this spring.  In addition, I am attempting to apply some good orchard management practice:

• Spray the trees with organic garlic oil/water mix before blossom and through the season
• Apply insect barrier along the tree trunk, i.e. Tanglefoot
• Handpick and kill caterpillars as soon as I find them
• Proper pruning every year

	4 apple trees and 2 pear trees.  One of the pear trees is the new “4-in-1” pear tree which supposed to give 4 different kind of pears in 1 tree.
	This is the original apple tree that I planted 11 years ago as a yearling.  It started to bear fruit 2 years ago.
	Insect barrier along the trunk to trap ants, caterpillars, flies, etc…
	This is the brand that I used.  Very sticky!