Just heard a report that the 12 months ending in June 2019 was the wettest 12 months in US history. It’s also been very cool. I’ve noticed the cool part which did affect my melons and could damage the pecan crop.
Has the wet/cool pattern been obvious on your fruit crops?
The problem is there is very little consistency. It’s either feast
or famine. We had severe drought combined with daily 100 degree
temps all through May. Followed by daily down pours all through June.
Now we’re having a combination of both. It’s hard for anything to constantly adjust to those types of variances.
we were on the cool side, putting everything 2 weeks behind in growth but we were average for moisture .
Yes it killed one tree, and severely damaged 2 others. I lost a ton of grafts.
Mulberries in particular seemed prone to drowning- but our monsoon was a 2 year affair leaving trees in mud when they were hardening off last season. The year before killed of a lot of apricots, probably weakened by excessive water either in fall or spring.
We’ve now had 2 weeks of typical east coast summer with a few light thunder showers but not much accumulated rain and lots of sun and humidity. I’m having early trouble with brown rot on earliest nectarines and am too tired to spray right now. I may put down Indar on Monday, but spring has left me exhausted. Too many years on the motor and too many orchards that keep getting bigger. Finally hit a wall from continuous 6-7 day workweeks that start early and end fairly late. No wonder many folks retire at 65! I feel your aches, Olpea, although I believe you are still well under retirement age.
Have to spray some other orchards by Tues that want pristine fruit (or just nectarines). I should be recharged then if I ignore my garden and orchard a bit today and tomorrow, which is hard to do.
I wonder if wetness has contributed to the insane level of pressure from so called “fall” webworm, which has become epidemic in last few years and is now a 3 season pest, really, although it was always more late summer than fall.
Last year in our county of Texas (a very vernal area in this state) we had about 6” of rain in 4 months (May, June, July, August). There was a big red X on our place where we got none when storms would drop a little 10 miles from here. This year in May and June only we’ve had just shy of 18” and every drop of that fell on the red X. Bad fungus and rot. I’ve dug up and potted a few spring planted trees just to save them. It’s feast or famine here. Now we are in July and there is no predicted rain in site. Who knows??
That’s not too surprising to me. Spring-fall last year was very wet here in PA and that trend continued this spring. The rivers have been high for a long time now. I feel fortunate to live on top of a hill where my trees will never experience flooding.
Central Kentucky had the wettest 2018 on record. Then broke the Feb 2019 record for one month. Lake Cumberland set it’s all time lake level in the winter…since it was impounded in 1951.
So, I think we’re on a 14-month “Feast” in Kentucky…with a couple 2-week “famines” of rainfall in that time.
When you have potted trees and perennials by the hundreds and don’t water them and don’t have many die from lack of water…you know it’s a wetter than average spell.
Lexington, KY officially had 78.9 inches in 2018. I don’t have a rain gauge…but I think I exceeded that. Berea, KY had at least two “5 inch days” during June.
Somerset-Monticello -London had a mini ‘drought’ in May…but the farmers got to get their hay baled without getting it rained on. All in all, I’m happy with above average rain.
That big orange blob in the Gulf of Mexico must be a Tropical Storm…
Yes next week…
Wow, that’s a lot of rain. Must be double the average.
We were OK through the spring, not so much rain and cooler than normal, but now it is both roasting and raining. Yuck! Good thing I don’t have much to do in the orchard this time of year, about ten minutes at a time is all I want to do in this weather.
Wake up at 4 and there will be several hours of decent weather to work in. Or are you in one of those funky spells where it stays uncomfortable right on through?
Last year, late summer and fall, was the first time they were a problem. This year I had some webs last week.
Mine are fine except one potted died. I have sandy soil so drainage is not a problem for the trees in the ground.
The result has been vigorous tree growth but not much fruit. Pollination was a problem since the bees did not like the cool wet weather. Almost no fruit on cherries, plums and pears. An exception was Santa Rosa plum.
I have sandy soil so the constant rain in Spring and early summer didn’t damage trees but instead caused vigorous growth.
I have 3 IE mulberry trees, one in a fairly clay soil the others in a quick to drain silt on steep hills. The one in the more clay has suffered over 50% die back. In more clay soils than mine they have tended to do even worse, and I’m just talking about clay loam- about the best veg garden soil around here.
Mulberries do not seem to tolerate wet feet well.
Oops! So Sorry Drew!
