My honey gold has barely an apple this year, either. It must be weather related.
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My pattern since we got our chickens is a light first stage PC hit - adults flying in - then almost nothing. It was like that last year, when i was sick and did no sprays or bags. I lost almost everything to drought last year though.
This year I did 1 plain spinosad, 1 spinosad/permethrin spray. Then bagged, thinned when fruits about 1-2 inches
That worked great this year for PC and CM.
As much time as my girls spend under the trees, i dont think a single cocooned bug makes it back up the tree. Any adult curc who falls is a goner.
So i think i have a winning combo (about time).
My heroes
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More about those ālanes.ā
In pruning, one generally removes vertical branches, which in many but not all cases bear no fruit, and to keep the fruit-bearing horizontal branches.
The business of a ācentral leaderā or a ādistributed or modified leaderā is to retain some vertical branches, otherwise the tree sends up āwater sproutā verticals like mad. Commercial orchard operators sometimes donāt leave any verticals, but then they need to do heavy pruning every year unless they are planting dwarf trees.
The goal in training is to shape thick horizontal branches radiating from the center of the tree as scaffolding and then have branches growing sideways out of this scaffolding to bear fruit. Mostly, you donāt want to clip these fruit-bearing branches, but if you leave them all, you cannot get inside of the tree without getting all tangled up. What I do is clip enough of these branches that I have access to the inside of the tree, both to spray both sides of the leaves as well as to make picking easier. I also think these lanes allow more air flow into the tree, helping to dry it out after rains to control fungal pathogens.
I donāt bother with lanes with a dwarf tree where I can reach all of the branches. I cut the end off a branch near a bud pointed in the correct direction, where the new growth āhangs a leftā from the original grown direction. Doing this, I get a āspace frameā of fruit bearing branches that is low maintenance compared to an espallier practice. The espallier may be better suited for a commercial orchard because what I do is more labor intensive picking fruit.
All pruning plans last until a white tail deer rearranges your tree, but you just go with what you have (left) and work with thatā¦ As you see from my photo, I go with more free-form branches than the more highly structured form you see in commercial orchards.
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Beautiful chickens, I love that shiny black feathers! What is name of the breed? Are they for eggs or for meat?
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Thanks! 2 are black austrolorps, 2 are black jersey giants. We have 4 other girls too just didnāt pose that day. Excellent egg layers, which is what we have them for. 
They free range and are the best bug control ever. From 20 attached ticks a season to never seeing a-single one
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Ok I see what you are talking about now. Ironically I caught a doe in my orchard shortly after posting. She was happily munching when I showed up and caused a panic. She was able to toss herself back over the fence to her waiting foals but not before getting stuck on the fence and having to kick her way over. Not graceful but it got the job done.
Thankfully the damage was minimal due to the age/structure of the trees that she hit.
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