The wonky weather brought out the quince rust in my area a bit earlier than anticipated. I’m always scanning for the CAR fruiting bodies but these things are more nefarious. Lurking on the branches in the darker inner reaches of the trees makes it much less in your face. The state of the body makes me think that it already dropped its spore load. I rushed to get my suppression spray on my trees last night but seeing this makes me wonder if I was to late this year. Last year the fruits on my Chestnut Crab were obliterated. I guess time will tell.
That brings me to a question for those who deal with this issue. What else do you spray in that tank? I had to get my Surround down too, I’m seeing bites on the new apples, so I mixed them but I’m always a bit unsure of myself when mixing different components. In this case I wish I could have put a sticker in with it and put it down before the Surround but with bites already happening I didn’t want to wait.
My granny smith’s flowers all shriveled. It didn’t look super healthy last year. I’m hoping that some better nutrition and improved soil ph will bring it into better health for next year.
It got down to 27F this morning for a couple hours at my place. All my pawpaw leaves were limp when I got home from work and they look terrible. =( I think most will blacken and die.
They were the one fruit that did so, so well last year even with all the neglect! So it is sad to see the trees looking so pathetic.
I had very, very low expectations about the peaches (I expected no fruit) and very, very minimal expectations about the pear and apple (It’d be nice if some made it to maturity so I could figure out what they were).
I’m pretty sure there will be no peaches. However, I planted 4 new peach trees (since I think mine are all quite old). I think the pears are 50/50 chance I get a couple on some trees - I didn’t know to spray with oil last fall for mites and I didn’t spray with copper before bud burst. Many have been hit by pear blossom blast due to the cold + bacteria. The apples I have sprayed with immunox for rust, but many blossoms were likely affected by the cold.
But I’m already getting ready and planning for summer 2024! So I suppose you all have convinced me to become a crazy fruit person.
Do you have cedar or juniper on your property? Getting rid of them in the vicinity of your trees could help with rust. I saw a lot of cedar all along I81.
I do but getting rid of them would not be effective. Red cedar is a dominant tree in my area. Even if I removed all of them from my property it would only change the distance to the next by feet.
I’m looking everyday at the flowers on the apple trees, especially Goldrush apple, waiting for the opportune time to spray the Surround, Cease, Oil, Spinosad, and Immunox for the first coat. Most of the pedals have fallen, but several clusters remain. We are suppose to get rain for several days, which complicates the spraying.
Good luck.
I think It’s due to temperature inversion. Along a slope or on top of a hill it would not be so cold. I’m at similar elevation but on a slope, so not nearly as cold.
I have done my first spray with similar additions to surround. I’ve only seen one or two PC bites and no blossom blight like in previous years. What a relief!
Looks like one inch of rain Friday and not too warm til then so I am holding off on the apples. I sprayed the stone fruits a few days ago, maybe not for much good given the coolness and coming rain but I had too much damage on the apricots so didn’t want them sitting naked.
It is hard to make perfect decisions on when to spray Surround but if you wait for the perfect window your fruits could be ruined by then. Most rain is much less than an inch so you still have some coating when it is over. Long range forecasts can also be inaccurate. This Friday looks pretty certain though, only a few days away and likely to wash off most of the Surround.
yes. I have painted the bottom 2-4 feet of the apples and peaches with a diluted chalk paint (last years mix) or a diluted milk paint (this years mix). I cannot say for sure that is was needed not how effective it was but it seems a small activity for the ~ 12 trees in total. If I had my druthers I think I would choose something that voles find unpleasant.
I feel like I need to start a new thread called “Is it dead?” where people tell me whether my trees have died or are about to die. I’m in zone 6b and seem to be about 2 weeks behind @scottfsmith. I have four rounds of “is it dead?”
Mulberry trees should be full of leaves now - right? I have two large ones that just seem to have nothing going on up top when last year they were full of leaves. Both look like this right now -
Some waterspout things coming off the trunk and the whole top of the tree is bare:
Four tiny fig trees. They came in 4" pots from Hartmann’s. Looked quite healthy when they arrived. I accidently left them out on a night we had a sudden dip in temp and all the emerging leaves/leaf buds were frozen off. Is there hope? The cambium is green. But with no leaf buds are they goners? Should I just order more or wait? Each plant is just a little 6 inch stick right now. I have been watering them when it doesn’t rain.
(too depressing to include picture. Is tiny stick poking out of ground with little drip irrigator next to it. )
I was gifted 3 peach trees from a friend. They were excess plants from a local commercial grower who my friend knows. All my other peach trees are totally done blooming (like a month ago) and covered in leaves. One of these 3 has leaves.
There was some life drama and the trees sat on my friend’s front porch with roots in a plastic bag for a bit before I got them. I did cut off all but four potential future scaffold branches on each. They have been in the ground 3 weeks. On one of the non-leafed ones, the “scaffold” branches do seem dead, but the cambium on the main part is green. On the other the scaffold branches seem alive. I have been watering them when it doesn’t rain.
sad no leaves baby peach tree:
I also have two mimosa trees which look pretty dead (but I kind of hope they died. They weren’t exactly my favorites.) On the other hand, I can’t remember when they woke up last year…
Bonus round!
What is eating my peach tree!? Is it the little black ant like thing? This is a different young peach tree that has been doing well. Then, all the ends of the leaves are looking chomped! I noticed the little black insects and got a picture. I can’t seem to match the insect with any pictures of stuff online…
