apple tree question

[MortgageQueen]

I have the 3 in one Pear tree too and it does great. . .not this year though. I have wild apple orchard and a late frost killed off all of the buds (apple and Pear) don't know what the bears will eat. . .hopefully not me!

[Shwa Girl]

The pear tree on the other hand had the best yr yet. It was so loaded with fruit that some of the branches needed support they were so heavy with fruit.

Yes. They were saying on the news that the heat and early spring helped some fruit tree growers to have a bumper crop this year. In the US, they can't pick the peaches and nectarines fast enough, before they fall of the trees. The trees are loaded with fruit.

[i_forget]

I have a 4 in 1 pear tree that I planted about 4 years ago. All of the grafted branches did not do too well over the winters and broke off or do not even produce any fruit. The main tree was a Bartlett and it is doing very well, which is good because these are my faves!

I am not much of a gardener, but from reading and talking with people that have the grafted ones, I have come to the conclusion that the best thing to do is to just have one tree for each type of fruit that you want to have.

[primal]

These trees are a great idea but they are a little work. Some may need to be protected for the winter and pruning is very important because of the graft sites. Producing good apples is not only about using chemicals, pruning is a huge factor as you can see looking at an organic orchard. Trees are kept small to help the tree defend itself which also produces larger fruit.
Some non chemical things to look into are DE(Diatomaceous earth) and a type of clay(powder form) and Horticulture oil which are used in spring and when insects are most active. Hope this helps.