This year I tried long fiber peat moss, it is working so far, no signs of any mold.
3 Likes
I use the long strand too.
1 Like
I use it because of the success that others reported in videos with rooting figs. It works great rooting figs with about a two to four sq ft coverage in a plastic bin with no top on it and water saturated at the bottom. leave the cuttings just barely covered at the top. The long strand will keep the cuttings off the watery part at the bottom and the air will try to dry the top and keep from molding. The light and air will make the cuttings root fast, also wakes up the buds. It also can be wet on the bottom and it holds the cuttings up. The water evaporating is the big key.
1 Like
How I maximize my window of opportunity to get my Orient pear pollinated. I saw my first Orient bloom on 20160316 and today 20160325 was pretty much the last bloom which is nine days. I’m assuming that the first two days and the last two days there is either very little pollen being spread around so your window has been reduced to five days. There are a few things you just don’t have much control over, such as if the weather/insects doesn’t cooperate. I didn’t do much but I do think what I did helped. Last year I planted a Kieffer pear that bloomed almost in perfect sequence. The problem was that the Kieffer is still small so there is only a few blooms and to top that off the weather turned cold which eliminated help from bees. Out comes a very soft art brush and the first three day I hand pollinate between the two varieties. Then I got a lucky break and the temperature went up high enough to get some welcomed help from my little insect friends. In addition I have added three more pear varieties. The Orient has consistently been my earliest bloomer and the hardest to get pollinated. I feel like I’m heading in the right direction now and these little pears are growing fast. I bagged about 60 today and just guessing there is about 150 to go. I probably won’t bag all of them. Bill
1 Like
Most disease can be solved by proper nutrition.
For ex, in the other thread about about canker, I’ve talked to a commercial grower on 350 acres of cherries. He has eliminated canker through nutrition. There is a commercial blueberry grower I know who’s neighbors fields were attacked by spotted wing drosophila. Yet they didnt touch him. He has eliminated all disease and has amazing plants. He attributes it to nutrition.
2 Likes
How bout editing that to “some diseases”. Canker is one thing, but black knot on plums, scab, fireblight and cedar apple rust on apples, brown rot on peaches… Most of the debilitating diseases of tree fruit in the NE cannot be defeated with nutrition alone and often it has nothing to do with the issue.
4 Likes
No thanks. I stand by my assertion, even amongst those diseases. If you want we can have a dicussion about various soil tests and their suitability, but I figure that is for another thread.
Jon, that’s intriguing. It would be a useful tip if you would pick a disease and tell us how to get rid of it with nutrition
4 Likes
Here is my tip. I put 6’ high cages of woven wire fencing around fruit trees when I plant them to protect them from the deer. As the tree grows, it was a bother to make a larger cage, so some got cramped and misformed by the wire when other family issues took my time. Now I either make a large cage to begin with, or else cut extra fencing and wrap it around in more than one loop so I can expand it later. My original orchard sits on a steep slope, so expanding round cages is not easy. That is why some of the trees didn’t get enlarged cages on time and ended up with cramped branches. I cage each tree, rather than the whole orchard, because on a few occasions the deer have managed to knock over the fence or someone leaves the gate open, and this way the deer can’t wreck the whole orchard if they find a breach. I have found it works about right to cut a 50’ roll of woven wire fencing into two 25’ sections, which will make a 6’x6’ square cage with a foot of overlap for a closure piece. Then I stick a Dymo label on one of the fenceposts, plus make a written map of where each tree is before I leave the orchard. With new posts, you might need to wipe the post with a little rubbing alcohol to get the tape adhesive to stick. Make the labels over winter while awaiting your tree order to arrive so you have them to take along to the orchard. I keep all the supplies in a box or basket, so I don’t leave items home by mistake.
2 Likes
Sure. I will start another thread entitled disease, nutrition and soil testing.
I’ll do it next time I am in front of a computer. Weekends are with family and weekdays I’m in the field… So it may be a week or two, but I’ll make sure to let you know when I have posted it.
Jon,
I agree with you up to a point but also believe in environmental influences such as rainfall and timing of those environmental factors. @alan is saying and I agree with him that pressure is higher in some locations than others. Good soil nutrition is always important but no more important than good strong disease resistant varieties as an example. We must match the right varieties with the right area. A good example is last year I grew kieffer pears spray free Kieffer Pear. I can’t grow all pears spray free because some are more resistant than others. Those problems I have are largely due to my location. There is very little perfect soil admittedly in any location. We all have the same goals to reduce or eliminate sprays and improve soils for better quality food for us to eat.
2 Likes
You don’t solve most disease issues much less SWD via nutrition. If it were that easy do you think commercial growers in humid areas would be spraying some fruits 20-30 times a yr? Basically he’s calling the other professional growers and all the university personnel that help growers manage disease and insect pests incompetent.
1 Like
White plastic plant tags are everlasting ph strips. Scuff the plastic a little so that water does not bead up and dip or drip your test liquid then one drop of liquid indicator.
2 Likes
I always keep a roll of the hot-pink/orange surveyors tape (the non-sticky stuff you see tied to trees marking property lines) in my grafting tool box. Its a great way to mark the location of a graft on a larger tree, especially after you’ve removed the grafting tape/covering, etc and graft is growing out. But there is another great reason to have a roll of surveyor tape on hand. I love to use it as a first layer to help bind whip and omega-whip grafts together. It is just stretchy enough that if you wrap it pretty tight it will contract and hold the two pieces being grafted together very firmly. ANd because it isn’t sticky, it makes it easy to remove later. I overwrap it with electrical or other grafting tape, but mostly just to keep it from unwrapping since it isn’t sticky. I have and use parafilm, but many times I find it too delicate and when I’m trying to wrap a union tight parafilm often breaks. Of course, the surveyors tape must be removed at some point and parafilm alone may not.
Anyway, point is I find surveyors tape useful- both for marking graft locations and for wrapping and holding grafts together. Maybe you will too.
2 Likes
I may try some of that surveyor’s tape to mark the few fruit that appear on my Pineapple Guavas.The fruit and leaves are so close in color,size and shape,they are difficult to locate,even after seeing them the day before. Brady
2 Likes
If you want to avoid disease and insect pressure, just don’t try growing varieties that didn’t evolve in your climate with its specific pest complex- of course that won’t stop some pests from hitchhiking a freighter from China or about anywhere else on the globe and the native pests whose nourishment relies on fruit from healthy “well nourished” trees such as plum curculio on amelanchier fruit.
The native fruits in my region have far fewer pest problems than the wonderful species I choose to grow. Sure, I love my blueberries, and raspberries and blackberries are useful fruit, but harvesting tree ripened nectarines, peaches and plums is even more important to me as are apples.
Most of the issues involved with growing the fruit we love cannot be combatted with the correct balance of nutrients and the proposition is an entirely mythological construct unless it involves some revolutionary new system unknown outside of Jon’s community.
Faith based beliefs are held just as strongly(or more so) as science based ones. This is quite the double edged sword. If you come to this forum with sweeping statements that contradict the science of growing fruit, please be prepared to defend your faith.
5 Likes
I agree Alan until the perfect plants come a long or the diseases and insects go away we will continue to spray what we need to and no more than we have to. Alternatively I could eat only kieffers and though I enjoy them that is not my only goal. I enjoy peaches , cherries , apples and many other pears etc. and those cannot be grown here without some sprays.
1 Like
And I’m a fan of your methods and attitude. Keep trying to find the right varieties for your location and we will all benefit from your successes.
4 Likes
Great idea. Thanks
A healthy plant is better able to fight off disease just like a healthy human.
But being the healthiest still can’t save you if you get hit by lighning or a train or one ounce of lead traveling at 1500ft per second.
Mike
3 Likes