Interesting, cool idea! I’ll have to try that. I usually think of air layering for my apples or maybe peaches but never thought about it for bluebs. Thanks for this!
My surround is mostly off my Carmine Jewel cherries and some other fruit and I’m wondering if I can consider the PC scourge over for the year or I need to respray before we get to the warmer weather and they are more active (if still around). I would spray just to be cautious, except that I’d much rather harvest cherries with less clay residue on them.
Are PC done for the year or do their generations continue for a while?
Its crazy windy right now and I dknt know if thats what did It but my new citrus ha completely defoliated… why. It looked fine when I checked on it this morning and now3 hours later its got no leaves lol
It feels like PC has multiple waves around here but I tend to reduce spraying end of May. My infxn rate seems low for June.
I hope Scott chimes in since he has the most experience
1 Like
Transplant shock and heavy winds combo maybe ?
It’s some kind of insect that chews on the new growth of plants. When the wind blows it just breaks off the half chewed stems. It happens every year on new growth here. Never actually seen what insect it is though. If you look at the stems you can often see one side is black where they chewed on it and then it broke off at a later time.
Im guessing stink bugs.
It’s been an odd year for PC here, I got lots of really early damage on the apricots and then almost nothing since then, mainly due to the colder weather. I’m certain they are still out there but are not going after things due to the cold, but once it warms up I expect they will try to do a whole lot of damage. So I’m planning on putting a good coat on every fruitlet this Saturday.
Some of the fruits are so big that the PC loses interest. They want to get at the plum early enough to eat the seed and cause the fruit to drop, so they lose interest in larger fruits (the pit will be hard by the time the worm is big enough to try to eat it). The only exception is fruits that look smaller in spots, e.g. the tips and necks of my prune plums they keep after for a long time. I’m going to turn that tree glowing white this weekend. Most of my plums are already too big (a bit bigger than dime size is about when they lose interest), but many of the apples and pears are not too big so they will also be getting a good coat.
They have two generations a year, the first generation hatches in the early spring and stays alive until early June. So we are not in the clear until the first week of June. There is another generation later in the summer but they only do spotty damage.
3 Likes
Those leaves might have whitefly or scale damage on them. They might be dropping because they are not productive any more due to the infestation. Take a magnifying glass and you should be able to see better what is happening there.
1 Like
@scottfsmith Do you think maybe these cherries are safe to leave unsprayed since they are already turning color? I understand there are absolutely no promises of course, but it makes sense they’d be targeting less mature fruit, like my apples and Asian pears. Of course I’d rather have cherries without worms, but if I can have cherries without worms that I don’t have to try to wash clay off even better!
2 Likes
You are quite a bit ahead of me, my cherries are nowhere near coloring. You might be OK at this point, I’ve only seen recent bites in green hard fruits. It makes sense they would not want to infest ripening fruit as the seed will be hard by then.
Note I still spray Surround (and spinosad) on my cherries at that stage due to SWD which can make a real mess.
1 Like
All the big neighborhood mulberries are ripening and getting messy. They seem pretty light on sweet and flavor this year- is that a product of the cold?
I’m worried the 4/21 free actually killed my new Gerardi. 3 weeks and no sign of new growth. Waiting impatiently.
Anyone in the region wanting elderberry get in touch. I divided and potted 30 rooted cuttings and at least half need homes. I can’t guarantee varieties as mine are definitely mislabeled.
1 Like
My established Gerardi started leafing out again this week after getting totally fried. Unfortunately all the fruitlets shriveled up.
I have 100 rooted elderberry cuttings from last summer that I have no idea what to do with lol. Might do some guerilla planting in the park across the way.
3 Likes
Too funny. They’re just so easy to root, and so fun, it’s hard not to do it! I plan on throwing a few at the woods edge of my neighborhood park…the nature center near me loves getting them. I also think anywhere along the C&O canal would be beneficial…
2 Likes
Just posting to whine about the latest frost (again last night- 5/14/26). Like others, my plants were looking great earlier in the year (1st good year for grapes & figs, mulberries were looking good. I’ve was able to cover some plants for one of our many late frosts. I now know to plan on frost if the forecast is for ~40 F. I’m jealous reading about everyone’s fruits coming along when I feel like I’m still in winter (in southwest Virginia). At least a few of my grape vines still look OK and I think I should still get some figs. The ‘positive spin’ to put on it is I pruned my stone fruit poorly this past winter and I think I removed most of my fruiting wood for my peaches (beginner’s mistake) so the frost didn’t hurt those fruits as much as my mistakes did. Again, I’m just writing to whine.
1 Like
After reading that, I was pretty confused - it was cold yesterday, but I didn’t think it froze. My weather tends to be pretty close to the weather in your area. I went and looked and it did freeze!!! Only for a tiny bit though. I had left everything out and didn’t even realize…
Just checked and the figs look okay - a couple of the newer leaves might not make it. A few kiwi plants appear to have frozen entirely… We’ll see how they are tomorrow.
Lucky me I got behind and hadn’t planted out my tomatoes and peppers.
I also haven’t planted my tomatoes and peppers, that will be this weekend!
The place I plant my veggies is at the bottom of a small hill, so if it gets into the 40s at night, it’ll be low 40s and probably will have some frost somewhere. Unsure if anyone has a solution for planting at the bottom of a small hill in terms of frost pocket protection. My current strategy is to not plant too early and to mound everything up
Actually would you recommend waiting to plant tomatoes until after this very hot week? I’ll probably plant them and try to water them a lot but maybe I’ll hold a few in reserve!
I think you can plant now as long as they’re hardened off to the sun and are watered consistently.
I’m trying kaolin clay for my starts this year to see if that would minimize sun burn. Not sure it matters though
3 Likes