Northern Mid-Atlantic: SE-PA/N-VA/MD/NJ/DE Region


Citrus trifoliata fruit in early December 2021. Established trees planted outdoors can survive Winter conditions as low as -20°F. The fruit can be utilized in marmalade when very ripe.

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MAP

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I am just wondering whether anyone in these environs has seen much Marssonina this year…

Not for me… at least that I have identified. Trees are keeping leaves well for the most part.

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I sprayed Goldrush four times for MLB- mid June Immunox, mid July Immunox, mid August Immunox plus Captan; mid Sept Immunox plus Captan. It kept one Goldrush clean and the other about 70% clean.

Unsprayed summer apple Monark got hid hard, about 1/3 defoliated.
I see MLB starting on Sweet 16.

Unsprayed and clean so far: Belle de Boskoop and Keepsake.

I’m 78 and don’t plan on doing this backpack sprayer business next year. No Mas! as Roberto Duran? famously said, surrendering to another boxer. So I either have some nice firewood or I graft over but to what??? My Boskoop is a sterile triploid- I need no spray pollinators for it and to pollinate Keepsake.

MLB may be the final straw for me and apples

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Sorry about the difficulties w/ MLB. I haven’t seen any around here yet. I haven’t sprayed Immunox since late spring / early summer. That was for CAR.

I am suspicious that those farther south who got much more normal rains in the summer are seeing more of it. Last year I did not really see much MLB until the beginning of September. If that ends up being typical I imagine the biggest problem would be with the later ripening apples.

If you want a tough pollinator perhaps Enterprise would be of use? For me it was almost completely unaffected last year. Unaffected by CAR. Unaffected by MLB. Unaffected by scab. If it were not for the other trees I would think those afflictions figments of other folks imagination.

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I switched to a hand pull battery operated sprayer this year due to back issues. It is awesome in every way but price (several hundred bucks). If you are interested I can dig up the model. I am several years younger but it is clear I need to make the work easier for me if I am going to keep the orchard going.

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Photos of a Segentrange at 4 years of age. The fruits are in earliest stage of color change. Based on last year’s immature fruits, these should ripen to a good orange color by end of October/early November. By holding the fruit 2 weeks post harvest, the juice content should increase slightly.

This selection has survived out of doors during recent Winters. The fruit characteristics will be evaluated when the fruit ripens.

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Nikita’s Gift is ripening.

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Looking good, Kelby! I have a couple Nikita’s Gift grafts done this past spring that are doing well so far. Are those your Bari figs with the persimmons?

Yes, that’s Bari.

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Early May 2019: Surviving F2 Citrange seedlings in Winter trial following a late January low of -11.8°F. Several dozen survived out of an initial population of 20,000 seedlings. These were further propagated and field planted. One of these selected survivors has transitioned into fruiting stage at present.

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For those who just received the remnants of Ian:

Boy I am glad Ian is finally gone. No sun for what was it five days in a row?

I don’t think one storm is going to do in your roots, it takes longer and/or regular spells.

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Now you folks talking about our soil. Look back several years. Quite some old trees got toppled by the storms. Reason? Our top soil is so thin. Roots just stay in the top layers. Even those tap roots do not go very deep. It is very hard to break the hardpan soil layer.

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Ian dropped around 4" here over 5 days, which was nice. Lack of sun was weird!

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The soil is totally saturated, not bad heading into Winter. Time to coil up the garden hose!

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A photo showing a bit of the productivity of one of the remaining persimmon trees.

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Hello everyone,
Novice grower out in the Atlantic City NJ area. Still very much learning the ropes. This forum in general has been a great boon to me and so a regional chat should be very helpful. Is anyone here dealing with very poor soil, great drainage but acidic and very low organic content for me, and more cedar trees than you can shake a stick or branch at?

I’m planning on top dressing the soil a bit at a time over the next couple of years with a half inch per year of composted leaves at a time supplemented with foliar sprays/soil drenches of compost/worm tea from time to time.

As for the cedars, a spring spray schedule of immunox. I missed my spray this past spring and was surprised to find that the fruit, and only the fruit, of my Chestnut Crabapple was hit where I was expecting other more susceptible varieties to take the brunt of it.

Critiques of this plan are appreciated.

Rambling side note, Scott thank you for your updated list of what has worked and what has not. You are near enough for that list to have great value to me.

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Welcome! It’s my understanding that dealing with sand is going to require adding huge amounts of organic material to grow most stuff. By huge amounts I mean a foot of compost on top the sand.

I’m sure you know blueberries should do well for you, only a few million along the expressway! I see wild persimmons along the parkway heading to Cape May. What are you looking to grow?

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