IPM specialist Kristy Grigg-McGuffin of the Ontario Ministry of Food and Rural Affairs talks about fruit tree traps - some monitor fruit tree pests while others help to control pest populations. 
 
 Click here to watch a video of this Episode on Fruit Tree Traps

You can find a wide range of recommended IPM tools in Orchard People's online shop. But below are a couple of products mentioned in this program including the  Appscope Quick Attach Microscope (affiliate links).

The host of The Urban Forestry Radio Show and Podcast is Susan Poizner of the fruit tree care education website www.orchardpeople.com.  Tune into The Urban Forestry Radio Show LIVE by going to RealityRadio101.com on the last Tuesday of every month at 1.00 pm Eastern Time.

Learn to grow organic fruit trees successfully. Sign up for OrchardPeople.com's premium online courses at https://learn.orchardpeople.com/. 

 Forget mangos and bananas. If you're interested in an exciting taste adventure in tropical fruit, check out the Native American pawpaw fruit. Now pawpaw fruit may be juicy, silky soft and tropical tasting, but this fruit grows on trees across North America from the eastern edges of Texas, to Florida, and all the way up to southern Ontario.
 
Like any new craze, folks are turning this fruit into pawpaw beer, gelato and other goodies. But the truth is pawpaws are not new. In fact, these trees were here long before Europeans settlers came to North America. So in this episode of The Urban Forestry Radio Show and Podcast we'll explore the history of pawpaws, tracing it back to to the First Nations.

Show guests include;
 
 * Self confessed "pawpaw propagandist" Paul DeCampo, who is one of the first people in the city of Toronto to start promoting the planting and harvesting of these beautiful fruit trees.
 * And Issac Crosby, Lead Hand in Urban Agriculture at Evergreen Brickworks in Toronto and a member of Ojibwe Nation who remembers his great grandfather giving him a pawpaw to taste when he was just a child.

Learn all about how to grow pawpaws in this article.

This episode's contest prize was a copy of Kate Frey's book "Ground Rules: 100 Easy Lessons for Growing a More Glorious Garden"

The host of The Urban Forestry Radio Show and Podcast is Susan Poizner of the fruit tree care education website www.orchardpeople.com.  Tune into The Urban Forestry Radio Show LIVE by going to RealityRadio101.com on the last Tuesday of every month at 1.00 pm Eastern Time.

Learn to grow organic fruit trees successfully. Sign up for OrchardPeople.com's premium online courses at https://learn.orchardpeople.com/. 

If you’re growing your fruit trees organically, it’s important to protect them from pests and diseases and having a fruit tree spray schedule can make that much easier. In this episode we speak to orchard consultant Mike Biltonen from Trumansburg, NY, about organic fruit tree sprays that you can use throughout the year.

Mike has farmed his entire professional career. He has horticulture degrees from Virginia Tech (BS ’86) and Cornell (MS ’92), as well as over 35 years of practical farming experience. He has a passion for sustainable orcharding and helps orchardists transition from conventional to organic practices with Know Your Roots, a small holistic company he owns and operates with his wife Debbie.

• Watch a video excerpt from this podcast here.
• Read more about this interview here.
• Download more information about spray schedules from Mike here.
• Read more articles about feeding fruit trees here.

The host of the Orchard People radio show and podcast is Susan Poizner of the fruit tree care education website http://www.orchardpeople.com.

Formerly known as the Urban Forestry Radio Show, from germination in January 2016 until December 2023, we have grown over the years, thanks to the collective knowledge and collaboration of our monthly guests, organizations, and audience from around the world.

We offer something for everyone to support your fruit tree care journey, whether you prefer to learn through listening, watching, and/or reading.

RADIO SHOW and PODCAST - FOUR WAYS TO TUNE IN

Join our live show on the last Tuesday of every month at 1:00 PM ET and submit your questions and comments!

Can’t make it live? No worries – catch the podcast later.

Here’s how:

• Live Audio: Listen on RealityRadio101 at 1:00 PM on Tuesday
• Live Video: Watch live on the Orchard People YouTube Channel at 1:00 PM on Tuesday
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• Video Podcast: Watch the recorded video on our YouTube Podcast Playlist

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Let’s grow together.

• (00:00) - New Year's Resolutions for Fruit Tree Growers

Jesuit pear trees also known as Mission pears. French Jesuit missionaries brought these productive trees to North America in the 1700s. Learn more about this heirloom fruit tree from Jesuit Pear enthusiast Paul Spence.

Click here to read an article about Jesuit Pear Trees.

The host of The Urban Forestry Radio Show and Podcast is Susan Poizner of the fruit tree care education website www.orchardpeople.com.  Tune into The Urban Forestry Radio Show LIVE by going to RealityRadio101.com on the last Tuesday of every month at 1.00 pm Eastern Time.

Learn to grow organic fruit trees successfully. Sign up for OrchardPeople.com's premium online courses at https://learn.orchardpeople.com/. 

In this episode we explore the story of plant breeder Luther Burbank and we'll see how his discoveries still live on in our edible gardens today. Our guest is Rachel Spaeth, the garden curator of the Luther Burbank Home & Gardens in Santa Rosa, California.

Rachel also serves as the Secretary for  the Redwood Empire Chapter of the California Rare Fruit Growers, is adjunct faculty at Santa Rosa Junior College in the Agriculture and Natural Resources Department, and is currently working on a PhD in Historical Plant Breeding and Genetics from UC Davis.  In her spare time, she enjoys multi-grafting fruit trees and identifying insect specimens.

The host of The Urban Forestry Radio Show and Podcast is Susan Poizner of the fruit tree care education website www.orchardpeople.com.  Tune into The Urban Forestry Radio Show LIVE by going to RealityRadio101.com on the last Tuesday of every month at 1.00 pm Eastern Time.

Learn to grow organic fruit trees successfully. Sign up for OrchardPeople.com's premium online courses at https://learn.orchardpeople.com/. 

In this episode, certified crop advisor Simon Neufeld talks about soil biology. Why is it important to have a lot of good organisms in your soil? What services do they provide? And if you do have "dead soil", is it possible to use so-called "biofertilizers" to bring it back to life?

Simon is the Chief Agronomist at Earth Alive Clean Technologies, a company that develops environmentally sustainable microbial products which they say can replace many of the damaging chemicals that farmers use today.

Read an article about the importance of soil bacteria when growing fruit trees and other plants here.

The host of The Urban Forestry Radio Show and Podcast is Susan Poizner of the fruit tree care education website www.orchardpeople.com.  Tune into The Urban Forestry Radio Show LIVE by going to RealityRadio101.com on the last Tuesday of every month at 1.00 pm Eastern Time.

Learn to grow organic fruit trees successfully. Sign up for OrchardPeople.com's premium online courses at https://learn.orchardpeople.com/. 

Ben Caesar of Fiddlehead Nursery in Ontario who will share his top perennial vegetables to grow and create a fantastic dinner menu featuring many of his favourite edible perennial plants.

The host of The Urban Forestry Radio Show and Podcast is Susan Poizner of the fruit tree care education website www.orchardpeople.com.  Tune into The Urban Forestry Radio Show LIVE by going to RealityRadio101.com on the last Tuesday of every month at 1.00 pm Eastern Time.

Learn to grow organic fruit trees successfully. Sign up for OrchardPeople.com's premium online courses at https://learn.orchardpeople.com/. 

Nikki Rothwell of Michigan State University's Northwest Michigan Horticulture Research Centre talks about spotted wing drosophila (SWD). Unlike other fruit flies that target mostly rotting or fermenting fruit, SWD targets fruit right on the tree, laying their eggs in the young fruit and eventually turning it into a wormy mess.

SWD targets a wide range of crops including cherries, apricots, plums raspberries, currants, and elderberries. The bad news is that spotted wing drosophila is spreading across North America, benefiting from our warming climate.

Nikki has found that there are ways to make our orchards less hospitable for SWD. Simple tools like pruning and orchard floor maintenance are a large part of the equation.

The host of The Urban Forestry Radio Show and Podcast is Susan Poizner of the fruit tree care education website www.orchardpeople.com.  Tune into The Urban Forestry Radio Show LIVE by going to RealityRadio101.com on the last Tuesday of every month at 1.00 pm Eastern Time.

Learn to grow organic fruit trees successfully. Sign up for OrchardPeople.com's premium online courses at https://learn.orchardpeople.com/. 

Learn from organic grower Terry Durham of riverhillsharvest.com about how to grow elderberries, what cultivars to choose, and to discover if growing these lovely plants can be a business opportunity for you too!

The host of The Urban Forestry Radio Show and Podcast is Susan Poizner of the fruit tree care education website www.orchardpeople.com.  Tune into The Urban Forestry Radio Show LIVE by going to RealityRadio101.com on the last Tuesday of every month at 1.00 pm Eastern Time.

Learn to grow organic fruit trees successfully. Sign up for OrchardPeople.com's premium online courses at https://learn.orchardpeople.com/.