savoy015

Remember my post about using footies and kaolin clay to prevent insect damage?   Well, it's late August and for the first time since I planted my apple tree 15 years ago, I've got an entire tree full of beautiful apples.  About six apples have fallen over the season, most of them had obvious damage from codling moths.  Those are pretty good odds given that I have about 100 apples on the tree right now. You can barely see the nylon footies.  They've stretched with the growth of the apples. The Liberty tree in full glory and groaning with the weight of apples. The keys to success were: Begin applying Kaolin clay immediately at 80% petal fall. Keep applying the clay as it wears off with wind or rain until the apples are the size of nickels. Once the apples have reached the appropriate size, thin them to one per bunch and then apply the footies. It's labor intensive but it is organic and it produces beautiful apples.

For many years I've been frustrated by the near complete loss of my apple crop to plum curculios, codling moths and apple maggot.  If you're not familiar with these insects pests  download this excellent PDF from the Wisconsin extension.   It is free to download and you can purchase a hard copy as well. Between the three of these little devils, I was getting only enough apples for a few pints of applesauce.  I tried putting nylon stockings over the developing tiny fruit.  However, the plum curculios damage the fruit before it is large enough to be able to use this technique. This year I finally got smart and I began spraying my apples since petal fall with Surround, a finely ground clay that irritates the insects and prevents them from feeding or injecting their eggs into the fruit.   Here's a good article about using Surround kaolin clay.   (It's probably obvious but "petal fall" is when most of the petals have fallen off the blossoms.)  Don't sp...

Check out this great article about building a trellis out of electrical conduit.  If you replaced the string net with wire, this would be a great way to build support for the smaller fruits.   I'm not sure it would be sturdy enough to hold up an apple or pear laden with fruit but it would work wonderfully with currants, gooseberries, or even raspberries. Urban gardening from a country perspective: Do it yourself (and easy!) garden trellis

Another great benefit of espaliers is the ease of protecting them from late frosts.  Frost is threatening my home town tonight.  I found some tarps and sheets and clipped them to the wire support system to provide some protection against frost.  It's doubtful that these passive measures will be effective under 28 degrees but the forecast is for 30 degrees tonight.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Tarps and blankets covering espaliers will protect to 28 degrees if you're lucky. The micro-climate here with the cement driveway close by might be enough to protect these blossoms if there is no wind but I didn't want to chance it.  If you're lucky enough to have your espaliers planted against a rock or brick wall, you've got excellent protection if you can use a tarp to cover the tree and include the wall allowing the radiant heat to be trapped by the tarp. Good luck to everyone.  I'm hopeful I can still have a harvest this year.

Pruning black currants is a fairly easy task. Since black currants bear the most fruit on last year's wood, the only real trick is to remove all the wood that is more than one year old. Here's a before photo: See the finished product below.  It looks like I've killed the poor thing but without removing those old canes, there wouldn't be room for the new shoots that will bear next year's crop. Be sure to either burn the removed canes or remove them far away from your garden to avoid spreading disease or insect pests.

Peach leaf curl is a serious problem and can defoliate a tree Photo credit goes to the University of Illinois Extension There is no cure for peach leaf curl, only prevention.  You must apply a fungicide early before the buds begin to swell.  The fungus is carried into the opening buds via rain so you've got to knock out the fungus before buds are susceptible.  Some people also apply fungicide in late fall. If you're looking for organic solutions, you can use lime sulfur. My experience is that it is quite effective.  However, it smells like rotten eggs and since mine is an urban orchard, I didn't feel it was fair to make the neighbors smell that for weeks! I switched to Chlorothalonil.  I try to be as organic as possible but sometimes gardening requires compromises. The folks at your local garden store will be able to help you with what is available in your area.  Whatever you do act now!  Once the disease starts, you just have to wait while all your ...