Hello everyone! This is my first post here.
I have never been good at growing gardens so I figured I would try my hand at an apple tree. We live in South Louisiana (about an hour southwest of New Orleans) and the guy at the nursery suggested an Ein Shemer apple tree because they can withstand the heat and only need a couple hundred hours of cold.
Before Hurricane Ida we had a peach tree (Florida King maybe?) that did very well, it produced so much that my son would sell the ones we didn't need to make extra money. Unfortunately it fell and hit my shed. It is still technically alive. This year it started producing peaches but they all fell off, probably because of the stress it is under from being at a 45 degree angle, so I realize that I will probably need to cut it down. But my hope is that after a couple of years that this apple tree will do just as good.
After I planted my apple tree I watered it very heavily every day, then after two weeks I started watering it every other day (still very heavily) with mostly rain water. That is I use rain water unless we run out, in which case I just use tap water from the hose pipe.
My first question is how much longer do I need to heavily water it every other day? My second question is what can I do about the pests eating the leaves? My guess is that they are stink bugs because I saw one chillin on one of the leaves today. I would like to stay away from pesticides, but I also understand if I can't.
Attached is a picture of how young and tall the tree is right now to hopefully give you some context.
