Flowers dropping and seeing apples start to develop. Decided I better get a drop on thinning now as I might get to busy later. Spent an hour last night on my Hawkeye.
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JD, what kind of reflective material are you using as walls under your grow lights?
John
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Well, I was wrong about not buying any trees this year. I needed to replace my peach tree. I bought another one yesterday from Menards. It’s an Elberta peach tree. A few years ago Rabbits ate my other one. Then I grew out a rootstock that I grafted to Indian Free in a pot for a year. Last year I planted it and didn’t get the guard on well enough and the rabbits girdled it too. I just opened a jar of peach jam from my first tree and mixed it into homemade yogurt. It was so yummy I can’t wait for more!
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John, Its a reflective bubble wrap used for insulation called refectix.
Its kind of expensive to buy. I got some for free at work when the company that makes it sent us some machine parts in for repair. They had everything wrapped in layers of it and home with me it went. 
Pretty durable stuff, perfect for this application.
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i use mylar sheets in mine. buy it on amazon by the roll. pretty cheap and last forever.
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Thanks JD. You’re right it’s not cheap. The mylar might be more in my range. I’d be taping it to my T-5 fixtures and letting it hang down to form a mini greenhouse …so the thickness is important.
Moose71, how thick is the mylar you use?
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We just got 70s!
Here are the past few weeks’ flowers:
Uploading: E392FB1D-6FDE-4FCD-9B60-FF11FB4C3A5B.jpeg…
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After all the rain, the slimy orange cedar-apple rust galls are sprouting. Gotta spray today.
Gonna try mixing some captan with the Immunox this time.
Thinking - as long as I have the sprayer loaded, maybe hit the strawberries at the same time? Buds are forming.
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don’t remember. id go with heavier for durability.
I was able to complete my peach grafting yesterday. I grafted Harko nectarine onto my new Rich May peach, hopefully to make a full scaffold branch. I also grafted Redhaven, Glenglo, and Ernie’s Choice onto my Elberta peach, which hasn’t been great in the past. We are suppose to have several days in the 70s here, so this has been the best window I’ve had.
@Susu
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FYI, someone on “a social media forum” the other day was complaining about CAR. They said they sprayed both Captan and “some fruit tree spray from a big box store”. I asked what the name of the fruit spray was and after looking it up, saw that Captan was it’s main ingredient. Heh…
Anyway, as a result of trying to help them, found this:
Although apples may occasionally become infected by spores produced several miles away, most infections result from spores produced on Juniperus within a few hundred feet from the apple trees. … Captan ®, the fungicide component of many pre-mixed home fruit sprays, is not effective against cedar - apple rust .
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You and me both. 
I finally did my peach grafting yesterday too. Figured it won’t get any better than this for a while…:
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But it is effective against scab. I have to hit both at once this time of year. I have probably 30 or more junipers here.
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Gotcha… Just wanted to share that note about Captan and CAR specifically… Good luck!
Very good to know, certainly.
Also the thing about adding vinegar to the spray water with captan.
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I’ve been using myclobutanil for CAR. It also helps with scab, sooty blotch and fly specks. One product is effective to all these issues of apples.
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Yesterday while dodging the rain I managed to complete raised bed #3 for the raspberries arriving from Starks next week.
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Well, foo. When I got to the strawberries, I found the Earliglows were already opening - with black eyes. The freeze was six weeks ago, in March! I hope the later ones don’t have the same thing.
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It is the first of May in France. May Day!
That means it is good luck to give or to buy and put in your house sprigs of lily of the valley. Here are mine that I am sharing with you!
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Mine are still just one inch high, thanks for sharing yours, perhaps some luck will rub off. Happy May Day to everyone!
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