I remember hearing that honeyberries aren’t fully ripe until several weeks after they change color. I don’t ever got to sample them at that point, as they are long gone from the bush due to the birds, but it is something to consider.
Wouldn’t sunny days be worse? If it is 50F and sunny, the temp experienced by the tree (which will usually be in full sun as they are normally planted in sunny spots…) would be much more- maybe 70F or more. Or is it the temps experienced by the roots that matter more, with the rain penetrating the ground and bringing the warm temps through the soil more quickly?
My non-scientific observations are that rain on warm days can seem to jump-start the waking up of trees, but I could definitely be completely wrong. I’ve always thought it was the fact that you have warmish rainwater going into the ground that raises the soil temperatures faster. Like many things in nature, it may be a combination of things or I could just be seeing trees waking up to warmth in general which does often just happen to come along with some rain.
I’m a lazy gardener…My work is all about documentation (research and even jewelry) so for leisure activities I am unmotivated. With both gardening and handspinning I have a no notes policy.
That said, I think I’ve had brown rot problems for 6-7 years. The tree had overgrown during a time of infirmity (was using a walker), during which I was running my biz and an awesome community initiative High School (right next to your neighborhood in Coldspring Newtown!). The tree was way overgrown and we were getting crazy crops and it was too tall to manage…plenty for birds, and worm damage and still we could get more than we could use. I remember in 2013 two of the students came over to help my daughters harvest because rain was forecast. Everyone was up in the tree soaked…
I think the first year we were surprised by the rot and lost maybe 60% but the tree was really producing. Then I’m not sure if we tried the milk and it helped the next year or the one after that. I think we used milk and it helped, then I missed my windows the 3rd year and we lost everything. That was likely the year it jumped into our strawberries (which had gone from a border by the tree into the “lawn” underneath. So we had both mummies (dead rot cherries) and “strawmbies” monster disgusting strawberries of brown rot. Children! always vacuum up those mummies from the ground or lay a tarp to catch 'em!! Would have been ideal but I didn’t even see that suggestion for 2 years.
Anyway, when diligently spraying with milk every two weeks, that made a huge difference. We took down most limbs ourselves so that spraying could be more efficient and when rains weren’t bad we did okay.
Milk works much better for me than “organic” approved fungicides. I mostly tried copper (but also after missing my milk window, so not a fair test). Sometimes I would mix copper with milk and soap. But we still had an increasing worm problem.
I got motivated to spray more diligently for the first blossom and keep things sprayed 2 weeks diligently and by picking any cherry that was dying or showed some rot in reach we went brought us to a 40-50% recovery… Worms also got worse whereas there used to be maybe 10% of the crop, their dumb little smiley marks were on most of the cherries. Anyway, on the wet years it was a losing battle primarily because I had so much work. If I mistimed the first spray or slept on interim sprays the tree was doomed. So I trimmed it back from probably 20-30 feet high and 14’ diameter (and I’m getting old girl climbing in the tree or ladders). But we saw major success when I finally bought that cover which not only keeps out the flies but diffuses even the hardest rain into a mist which almost eliminates cracking AND manages backsplash from the ground and keeps debris where it is easy to capture and toss …no compost for the cherry debris!
I don’t think copper helps the milk spray and I saw a video of a successful use on peaches. I’m definitely sold, but I have one tree. Not sure how that would be managed with several to spray.
Thanks for the report! I agree copper doesn’t help for rot. I found copper helpful with bacterial spot but that disease is not so common. The last few years I have not sprayed any copper.
Those smileys are plum curculio egg laying marks. They make the rot a lot worse because the wormy fruits are more likely to rot due to the damage leaving an opening in the skin, and they then make a bunch of spores, which spreads to the non-wormy other fruits. I use Surround clay (edible) on my cherries and if I get enough sprays in I get very few curculio worms. Cherry fruit fly and oriental fruit moth can also put worms in cherries, but the curculio is what I have the most problems with.
It sounds like milk works about as well as sulphur which I used to use. With sulphur some years I would do OK and some years not so OK. I always did get some fruit at least. One good thing that taught me is I removed many varieties that were rotting too much, and so now I have relatively rot-free fruits.
Okay. I know there is not a hard and fast USDA zone border. But here is the situation:
I live in central NJ and am considering putting in some cane berries. Wild raspberries grow pretty well in my area so I am pretty confident I could keep them alive. (Whether or not they thrive under my care is another issue.) I would like to have blackberries. Most of the catalogs and web sites have black berries as being suitable for zones 5-9 or 6-9. In the past I have found many of the USDA zone ratings to be somewhat generous. I am on a hill; perhaps that might make my winter conditions a bit drier and/or colder than my location on the zone map would otherwise indicate. There is a previous thread (Blackberries for zone 6) which discussed the topic. After looking over that discussion I no more confidant that zone 6 for blackberries in general is a non-issue. I was wondering what experiences my mid-atlantic compatriots might have had. Perhaps @BobVance who was a contributor there 4 years ago might have some additional insights…
I’ve picked Triple Crown and Chester at an orchard in South Jersey before. Osage and Natchez are productive for me in PA. I think Prime Ark Freedom is more cold sensitive. It previously got damaged when temps went below zero. I don’t like that one, because the primocane berries get ravaged by SWD, and exacerbate the problem in my yard.
Central NJ is probably 6B, as it looks like only the NW corner is 6A. So you should be good for most “normal” blackberries. The ones you might have trouble with are the ones which say zone 7 or 8, like Marionberries or Columbia Star. Even those you could probably grow, as they are trailing and you could cover them with insulating mulch each winter.
I’m on the border of 6B and 7A and see little, if any dieback. In fact, what little damage I get could just be me mistaking a 2nd year cane for a 1st year cane :).
My father is solidly in 6B and I don’t think he has any problems with Triple Crown- I think that is the only one he’s growing.
Do you guys think it is too early to prune grapes, blueberry and persimmon this weekend? Or early March is better? We do have a couple days of warm weather.
I believe you want to prune in deep winter. of after the danger of a late frost. If prune during marginal weather weather you will encourge early growth that could hit by a late frost. Dead material can be removed anytime.
I don’t think late pruning encourages early growth, at least based on my own experience. Grapes for me have a great deal of dieback, they do a lot of self pruning. So I prune them very late when I know which wood is dead or not. One time I pruned grapes early and I left on a bunch of stuff that eventually died before bud break and had too few buds overall.
For persimmons they can also die back a lot so I also prune them later for the same reason.
I don’t prune my blueberries, I only remove dead branches.
I think @ lordkiwi question is if pruning now will encourage early bud swell. This is part of the question I’m asking. IMO, consistent night lows of 25F will keep buds sleeping. And there will be little winter die-back on the fresh cuts on dormant wood.
Will be happy to hear any other opinion. I think a later pruning (March) may encourage early bud swell. Now may be a sweet time to prune.
