Question
Hi Charlotte,

I am interested in treating my cherry tree organically to rid it of the worms that are eating the newly growing leaves. These worms not only eat the cherry tree, but my japanese snowball, and pussywillow. In years past I would find small green "inch worms" chowing down. Any natural solutions?

Elaine

P.S. Loved the information about orange peels and fire ants. I have an extensive problem with the ants, can barely weed or garden during the summer once they get going. So I am going to try the broadcast orange peels.

And do you recommend any book to get me started for organic gardening. I currently use an organic fertilizer, but that is about all.

Thanks!

Answer

Hi Elaine;
I have never grown cherry trees.
North Texas has not been a good area for cherry trees. I am in zone 7B, and until the last few years, there have not been cherry varientie that produced well here.
I see Stark Bros. have some that are supposed to do well here, so I am looking forward to trying again.
I DO love cherries.
Since I am not familiar with cherry tree problems, I thought I could help you more by searching for better information than a guess from me.
Check out this site. It looks like there is just about everything you need to know about cherry trees, including pictures of thh pests that infest them. Go to

  http://www.ext.colostate.edu/PUBS/INSECT/05520.html

As far as natural controls, garlic pepper tea seems to get rid of a lot of unwanted insects, and will keep squirrels off your trees, but isn't supposed to deter birds.
  Garlic pepper tea:
 put 2 pr 3 whole bulbs of garlic and a couple of red HOT dried peppers ( chili etc) into a blender with 1 quart water and whirr till it is as liquid as you can get it.
strain through cheesecloth to get out minute particles that can clog your garden sprayer.
Use 1 cup of this tea per gallon of water in your sprayer, and spray leaves trunk etc, down well.
If the fruit has started to form, this may ruin the fruit for this year, as it might make it hot as a firecracker, but it could save the trees, and next year, spray earlier to keep the insects from getting on the trees to begin with.
If these insects lay eggs and winter over inside the trees, I would spray early in the fall, before that happens.
I hope this will give yo the information you need to save your trees and fruit.

The only book on organic gardening I have is by Howard Garrett.
He is Texas; resident organic guru.
He writes about problems Texas gardeners have, but we have climate just like almost every other state, in some part of the state or the other.
The Panhandle deals with the hard freezes, the coast deals with the humidity and salt air, West Texas ( as well as other areas) deals with extreme heat and drought.
Here in North Texas, we occasionally have a really hard freeze, and we have extreme heat, humidity, and are a resort climate for all sorts and varieties of insects and pests, as wel ass molds etc.
The zone just north of me is good for cherries, so I m sure there would be something in his books about those lil wigglers you have.
This is his website.
He doen't give out a lot of free information on his site, but he does list all the books he writes.Go check out the Dirt doctor at

http://www.dirtdoctor.com/

He is the inventer of garlic pepper tea, as well as a whole host of other tonics and remedies for getting rid of pests, without using poisons.
  

Good luck
Charlotte