May in the Orchard
I’m really excited about the promise of a bounteous fruit crop this year.
I’ve got cots on two trees for the first time- not enough for the Farmer’s Market, but maybe enough to can a few, dry a few, or even share a few right of the tree.You’ll see them when you come here for the field day in June.
Besides cots, I’ve got a fair set of Abate Fetel pears, also a first. I shared trees of this cultivar (cv) with some of you a few years ago--anybody else got a
crop?
As for peaches-my leaf-curl sprays in January didn’t do a good job, but with the warm weather we are now having, the new growth is showing recovery.
We now have a leaf-curl test planted at Sunrise Ridge, so I’m hoping we will get some current data on which cvs are resistant and produce a decent crop.
Apples - lots of powdery mildew showing up on susceptible cvs like Williams Pride. You can pick off infected branch tips and gain some control.
Sulfur spray or dust may also help some. Regarding apple scab, until this morning, I saw no scab infections on any trees, including susceptible cvs like
Gravenstein. Even the Jonagolds at Lu-Anne Branch’s orchards (where we pruned earlier) showed no scab. Then I looked at my Pink Lady tree and found it moderately infected. Will give it a sulfur dusting today but that won’t cure the present infection, just reduce future infection. While looking at the apples, I found at least ten small colonies of tent caterpillars—so be on the lookout in your trees, not just apples but many species of trees, especially alders. The more you squish now, the fewer you will have next year, when the infestation is likely to be a major problem. _
Cherries - I got a terrific set and thanks to Emily MacRae, the brown rot strikes are being picked off, especially from the Sweetheart cv. It makes us
wonder if it’s worth growing this cv even though it has good quality and sets a heavy crop. If you are thinking of planting a cherry tree next year, you might consider cvs like Lapins, Tehranive, Vandalay, or Early Burlat.
Figs - several of our members helped “Kiwi Bob” Glazman prune a very large fig tree (cv questionable) at Gene Sherman’s house on Quartermaster a
couple of weeks ago. Bob also took cuttings for his own propagation. I took cuttings from my Desert King last November and so far they have failed to root.
Strawberries -- I now have 31 cvs in the ground, five new ones from back east, planted April 22-24. I’m also picking and eating two cvs of strawberries-- Albion and Mara des Bois. I hope to be in the Farmers Market by mid June.
Finally, I should mention the ceremony coming up this Saturday at 2pm at Sunrise Ridge, dedicating two Founders trees (our fruit basket trees) and a
Rainier view bench to Dorothy Johnson, Opal Montague and Leo Montague. My wife, Carol, is coordinating the event for the Sunrise Ridge board and the community is invited. Various members of the Club will be giving ‘short’ speeches and refreshments will follow.
From Dr. Bob Norton VIFC Diary
April in the Orchard
This article is a reprinted exerpt from April, 2013 written by Dr. Bob Norton, one of the VIFC founders.
I’ve just come in from the pouring rain, having fertilized the weaker apple, peach and plum trees. I goofed not getting out a March Newsletter-too many things going on both in and out of the orchard. In March, the dormant pruning and then the grafting were finished, trees planted in the Club’s nursery at Bruce Jackson’s. Now it’s mid-April. Here’s how it looks and what we might look for and perhaps take care of.
What does your potential fruit crop look like? Judging from the fruit buds on my trees, I’m looking at a very heavy crop on almost all of the trees-apples, pears, cherries and even apricots. The dwarf apples on M9, B9 and M27 have excessive flower buds, meaning they need careful thinning, starting now! Hard to do, but it’s a good idea to thin out some of the cluster buds before they open. This will tend to offset biennial bearing, meaning that the spurs you remove the flower buds from will be more likely to become flowering spurs next year, while this year’s fruiting spurs may rest next year, causing biennial bearing. Delaying the thinning until you have a gillion little apples set won’t have much effect on fruit bud set for next year.
Why fertilize now? Most of my trees-apples, cherries and pears-are on dwarfing rootstocks (B9, M9, M27, Quince and Gisela5) with shallow root systems, likely to “runt” out, producing poor new growth and small fruit if not properly fertilized and watered. Therefore, I need to observe the annual new growth and if necessary fertilize to stimulate at least 8-10 inches of new growth annually. This is the best time of the year to do this because we will get enough rain to take the fertilizer into the soil before the dry season. If applied in the fall or winter most of the nitrogen would be leached out. If your trees are freestanding semi-dwarf or full size, the need for fertilization is less important. You may be more interested in slowing your trees down. That’s where summer pruning, letting the grass grow and holding back on water becomes more important.
The upcoming meeting on April 24 will go into detail on pollination, specifically the pollinators-honeybees, mason bees and other insects. By this date, apples and pears should be in bloom, cherries, peaches and Japanese pears at petal fall stage and strawberries in various stages of bloom depending on variety. At this time we might watch for leaf rollers on apples (easily squished), aphids on plums and sometime apples (maybe ignored), but if you are growing stone fruits you can’t ignore brown rot (Monilinia). As the daily temperature rises above 60 degrees and the humidity remains high, this disease can wipe out your crop of cherries, apricots, peaches or even plums. Fungicide application can reduce infection but keeping the trees open so that the fruits dry off quickly after a rain is equally important. My 8x8 foot spacing puts the trees closer than perhaps they should be, so I have to be very careful to remove infected flowers and twigs and spray fungicides during wet periods. Is it too late to prune? Heavens no! My peaches and apricots will get their main pruning later this month or in May when I can see what kind of a crop is set. If the crop is heavy, fruit thinning and some branch thinning will be done to adjust the crop so that the remaining fruit will obtain good size. With peaches, I’ll remove doubles (two fruitlets stuck together). Plums may over set (a rare situation) and thinning and pruning may be necessary to open the tree and balance the crop.
The rule of thumb is that the later you prune, the more stunting the effect on the tree. Makes sense doesn’t it? Removing leaves that produce the food (photosynthate) the tree needs to grow is bound to reduce vigor. If last year’s growth is weak, don’t prune heavily in spring or summer. This is what we mean by “reading the tree”. I walk through my orchard at least twice a week, observing new growth, tucking, pinching, maybe tying a branch up or down, removing flowers on branch tips, looking for insect or disease symptoms. This may not be your thing- you just want the fruit with a minimum of effort. Fine. You may find, however, that getting to know your trees becomes more fun and the trees will show their appreciation at harvest time.
Bob
Orchard Chores: March
It all begins with an idea.
This article is a reprinted exerpt from March 15, 2013 written by Dr. Bob Norton, one of the VIFC founders.
Pruning – Every year the question pops up - is it too late to prune my such and such?
Most experienced Club members know the answer, but for those of you who have non member friends and neighbors who might ask this question. Here is a brief summary answer: As trees leaf out in the spring they use the stored carbohydrates in the roots and above ground woody tissues to provide the energy for the spurt of growth.
Therefore, the earlier one prunes in the spring after the rest period is broken, the greater the stimulation of growth at the point of pruning.
Pruning a weak tree, one that made poor new growth last season after it has leafed out can be extremely detrimental, even to the point of killing the tree. Incidentally, deer feeding on new growth of a newly planted tree puts that tree a year behind if it doesn’t kill it outright.
On the other hand, peach, plum, apricot and overly vigorous apples, pears and cherries may benefit from pruning late in Spring, even after flowering and fruit set.
As we have demonstrated many times in our workshops, summer pruning is the preferred time to prune excessively vigorous tree, because removal of part of the leaf canopy can lower the tree canopy height without excessive regrowth at the point of pruning. This refers to watersprouts and excessive new shoot growth common on young peach, plums and other fruit trees,
So, when that neighbor asks that “too late to prune?” question, you say, “THAT depends ( the standard college professor answer).
Then you say, “For a small fee, or a favor, or a beer, I’ll come and look and look at your tree and tell you.”
There is possibly only two months of the year when there isn’t some good reason to prune- October & November followed by September.
Bob Norton