I trapped them.
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Is that tree away from other trees that squirrels cannot jump from other trees to this apple tree?
If so, you are in luck. Buy those cheap black bird nets and stuff (not wrap) them loosely all around the fence. I have found that squirrels do not like climbing up messy, loosely nets.
Maybe, those nets entangle their legs/claws? It has worked for me. You need to stuff the net up about 2-3 ft high.
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Haha, I understand. I’m not allowed to trap anything here, I think it’s against California law. But I use tulle fabric for the first time last year and was able to harvest 20% of my fruit.
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Thanks. I will try this.
I can legally shoot them when they are attacking my property, which i believe includes eating my fruit. I even bought a pellet gun to do this. (Discharging an actual firearm would be illegal.) But i don’t have the heart to do it. I probably don’t have the aim to do it, either, but i haven’t tried.
The key is to hang those nets loosely and messily to likely cause entanglement to squirrels. This method only has worked on my one peach tree that stood away from other trees. They can’t jump to that tree from other trees.
I planted my trees way too close to each others ( a mistake).
I hear you about not wanting to shoot them. I used to think like that but after caring for fruit trees only to have squirrels sole them all, would shoot them if I had a BB gun.
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I do the live trap- then airgun for quick end. they get a nice last meal in the thing, that’s for sure.
haven’t gotten one yet this year. last year, we got over 30. my partner has a soft heart and won’t kill them.
Reciprocating saw is less mess involving dirt. I would avoid dirt with chains and gears.
Where’s the cream? Sacroligious eating it without 
My first pesticide spray was today, 5/13. 99.9% of trees are at petal fall (shuck split for peaches and nectarines). Since I have a mixed fruit tree orchard, it has been an issue because some fruit reach petal fall earlier than others. I need to cross my fingers most years.
Zeta-cypermetrin (new Sevin), Captan, Myclobutanil (Immunox), Nufilm 17 and a couple drop of dish soap. Because of Captan, I add vinegar to the water and use ph strip to make sure ph was between 5.5-6.5.
It has been warm and dry. The dry part is a good thing.
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I did my first spray a few days ago. I was scouting my orchard when I saw a plum curculio on a nectarine tree, and my nectarines are at shuck split, so I sprayed right away; Sevin, Infuse and NuFilm. I only sprayed the trees that have fruit.
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I mainly spray trees that have fruit, too. If my empty Freckle Face get OFM’s flagging shots a week or two from now, I may spray it if I have leftover spray.
I got Captan and myclo now because it does help with Marrsonina leaf blotch on apples which has been a big issue in recent years.
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It’s a wonder to me,that before growing fruit,I never saw or heard of some pests or diseases,involved with my other plants.Maybe the native ones,developed defenses along the way and survived.
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I grafted it at about 2" high. It looks like I cut across the myro rootstock, though a small part of the cut could have gotten some apricot.
I put 3 plums on it (2 Lavina and a Laroda), but I’ll probably need to decide on one or two (maybe a V shape…).
2 and a half weeks later and it is putting on some growth.
And even better, it looks like a decent set of peach/nec on that tree and several other peach/nec/apricot (many of which were planted in 2021). I’ve given some 1 spray, but haven’t gotten all my stonefruit yet.
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Bob,
I am interested to see the development of your Lavina and Laroda grafts. That was as low as a graft can be. By the way, now I know which of my graft is Lavina ( it has a distinct pink-tinted flowers).
I will post some pics of my stone fruit grafted earlier when the weather was not ideal (58F - 62 F). Some are successful !!
Tippy, my Lavinia doesn’t have pinkish flower color. My Flavor Queen does
It was not pinkish but compared to other plums bloomed at the same time it looked a bit pink-tinted instead of very white. The fruit also matched Lavina pics. I got scionwwod from a trusted member. I never have Flavor Queen.
I don’t think that it is how low they are that will be an issue. I think the more likely problems could be some animal like a rabbit eating them, or the rootstock being dead from whatever killed the apricot on top. We’ll see…
I’d like to report my early grafting of peaches/nectarines.
On 4/25/23, I grafted 1 apricot, 3 nectarines and 4 peaches when temp was 62 F and the rest were 57, 58 F, at least 10 degrees lower than my usual” peach grafting temp (68-72F).
Today, 5/14, 20 days later, the success rate is 50%. An apricot, a peach (Ernie’s Choice) and 2 nectarines have taken.
@scottfsmith - the first two Gold Dust have not shown signs of taking. I grafted the 3rd one two days ago and hope third time is a charm. Ernie’s Choice is a success.
By the way, 50% success when temp was in the 50’s was very good by my own peach grafting history.
@Ahmad
Have you experienced twin nectarines much this year?
My small potted nectarines (just move the tree in grown last month), seemed to have their share of twins.
I can’t remember now what causes them to have twins.
I have seen a few, but remember, I have a very small crop this year, perhaps around 30 nectarines on all my trees combined. I have seen them a lot in past years. I noticed that some flowers have multiple stigmas, and I guess multiple ovaries too, and if two stigmas are pollinated you get a double. I don’t remove the whole double, I snip-off the smaller of the two and keep the big one.
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