A week ago we had golf ball hail. Heavy, shovel fulls. Followed by heavy soaking rains for 6 days. Just got my first cover spray in today. Organic: surround, bt, ba, spinosad, oil, raw milk, madex hp. Noticed every tree has tons of bark fissures. Im sure caused by hail and worsened by a week of soaking. Thankfully got 2 oil and lime sulfur apps in several weeks ago. Lost a decent amount of (fruit) what made it through winter and frosts. What can I do to help these trees (40 total) recover and hopefully keep pathogens out?
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Wow.
I’m guessing that you’re growing mostly apples and/or pears, and that your main concern is fireblight (and the other bacterial and fungal baddies).
How long were your trees in standing water?
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Sorry to hear of your orchard damage.
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Your biggest enemy, as you say, is a potential infection. The good news is if you can get by with heavier sulfur sprays, the damage you took from weather should be a huge blessing in months to come during the growing season. Do everything you can to avoid fireblight. I’m very sorry to hear of your damage!
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1/3 of each, peaches, apples and pears. Had to plant on 8-10" mounds, so even though the ground is still sopping they can breathe. Some standing water still in a couple low spots.
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I can’t spray lime sulfur now that they’re leafed out, but maybe DF sulfur. Looking into that. Can you explain the blessing during growing season? I would love that, but not sure what you mean. Thanks!
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I am so sorry to hear this. I hope your trees are not affected.
We had horribly saturated ground from El Nina where we put the apple orchard and they are all fine and leaving out, so I hope you have the same experience.
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Anyone know of sprays or soil amendments that facilitate callusing and bark/branch recovery?
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Lots of growth is the way to heal up hail damage to bark/wood. Not much else you can do.
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Ok. So extra fertilization likely is my best course of action?
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You could do that. But it’s probably not going to make any real difference. And extra nitrogen could increase things like fire blight if that’s an issue in your area.
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