With so many of us growing apples in the Rogue Valley, I find some thoughts on caring for them not an unreasonable idea.
Apples require regular management for producing quality fruit. Early spring will be the time for such maintenance activities as pruning and the spraying of a variety of oils to control pests. I’ve included a non-toxic, friendlier recipe for dormant oil later in this article.
Many of the sources I’ve interviewed about dormant oil have told me that it only need be applied once. However, several orchardists I’ve spoken with at the extension office have advised two applications; once when all of the leaves have fallen (late November or early December) and again in early February before the buds begin to swell. I hear that in some instances, gardeners are successful with only one application during the period of early December through late January. If the infestation or disease was very bad during the previous season, two sprayings would be the best bet. There are more details on stone fruit trees later on.
Pruning your apple trees is an essential practice since trees that are regularly pruned show improved fruit quality and size and the tree itself will be stronger and better able to support a load of fruit. Pruned trees are easier to work with if you keep the size and shape of the tree in check. And lastly, apple trees that are pruned on a regular basis are far less likely to have as many pest issues as trees that do not get as much attention.
Dormant pruning can begin in February and should be completed around the first of April. Each tree is an individual, just like people, and not every tree can be pruned exactly the same way. The general rules of pruning are to remove all damaged or diseased branches. Cut out the water sprouts. These are the quick growing upright branches that will clog up the center of the tree. And last, remove the suckers that will spring up around the base of the trunk.
Many other plants benefit from dormant spraying. Aside from pest control, potentially deadly fungal infections can be kept in check with dormant spraying. Deciduous trees, shrubs and roses – especially if they experienced an infestation or disease during the prior year - would all benefit from dormant spray.
In the spring, stone fruit trees should be sprayed when the flower color begins to appear on the end of the buds. Apples should be sprayed when the green tips are clearly visible on the leaf buds. It’s a good idea to delay spraying pears until the blossom cluster starts to separate and the individual buds are visible. If your pear trees were sticky and turned black last summer, add Thiodan to the spray. The pear russet mite is much slower to develop and generally emerge from under the bud scales and other hiding places.
With fruit trees, it is vital that all insecticidal sprays be completed before any blossoms open. Once the blossoms open, honey bees start to visit the trees. Although most oils are not harmful to honey bees, some of the other products that are mixed in with the oils are fatal. With all of the concerns about hive collapse, everyone needs to be a little more focused on the honey bee. Remember, honey bees are responsible for pollination. No bees, no food.
Spray on a clear day when there is little or no breeze. The ideal temperature for spraying is between 40 and 70 degrees. The perfect day would be 55 degrees that would remain constant for 24 hours in order to get the oil to spread out to cover the tree or shrub and soak into all the crooks and crevices. Complete coverage is necessary for effective control of over wintering pests. Apply this spray with one of those pump sprayer things. For insect control, use Dormant Spray Oil, Volck Oil or the dormant oil I’ve listed here. These will smother insects and their eggs in the same places as fungus and their spores. You can also mix in some lime sulphur for excellent control of insects and disease. Organic gardeners generally use only the oil, but other gardeners have found that diazinon increases the effectiveness of the oil product. Because these are OIL based products, you need to shake, not stir them to make sure they are well blended.
It is essential that you always follow the manufacturer’s recommendations when using any chemical product. Limit your spraying to those trees, shrubs and plants that had issues last season. If your roses had curl or black spot or mildew last year, dormant spray would certainly help that. However, widespread spraying can have an adverse effect on many beneficial insects that reside in your yard and garden areas.
Always wear a mask when spraying your plants with chemicals. Never use a dormant oil on evergreens. The chemicals are much too strong and caustic, and the evergreens are far too fragile to be able to cope with them. Annuals growing near or under the plants being treated should be covered before spraying, lest they be destroyed.
Finally, fungus spores can also over winter in fallen leaves. Be sure to rake and dispose of leaves if you’ve had any kind of disease problem. Besides, it’s just a good preventative measure.
Most commercial dormant oil products are made with kerosene of other petroleum oil products. A much less toxic and more sustainable approach is to use a renewable resource such as vegetable oil.
Take a cup of vegetable oil, 2 tablespoons of liquid soap (I prefer Ivory for use in the garden) and a gallon of water. Combine the soap and oil and blend thoroughly. Add the water a bit at a time, stirring as you go. Since water and oil, don’t really blend, the soap helps with this process. Pour the mixture into a clean garden spray container. Be sure to shake the container frequently as you spray.
Mum’s the word…
In the fall garden, chrysanthemums are the big diva showoffs, blooming prolifically after other garden plants have given up for the season. Aside from their obvious beauty, chrysanthemum is a favorite ingredient in Chinese herbal teas. In fact, tea with mums has been used for centuries for warding off sore throats and helping people recover from the flu.
Once mums are established, they are fairly easy to care for. Apply a liquid fertilizer, like fish emulsion, when your mums are blooming every three weeks. Some gardeners treat mums as annuals and replace them year after year while others prune them back and let them rebloom as biennials. In the right climate, mums can even be perennials. Be sure to dead head the flowers as they become spent to encourage more blooms and do discourage seed growth. If you’re after seeds, remember that they are incredibly tiny and you will have some work ahead of you to separate the seed from the brown foliage.
Mums like full early sun; at least 5 hours daily. Mums are susceptible to mildew. Keeping the plants dry is a priority. They need lots of air circulation, drainage and morning sun to dry the dew from the leaves and the stems. Don’t plant in low-lying, we, compacted, or boxed-in areas with poor air circulation. Mums blooming occurs in response to shorter days and longer nights. Avoid planting near streetlights or other nighttime light sources. They like a soil pH or around 6.5. Mums are pretty tough and can thrive on their own. They do benefit however from light and frequent feeding with a balanced fertilizer during the growing season.
Under perfect conditions, mums should be planted in early spring, after the danger of freezing weather has passed. They can really be planted at any time, though, as long as the roots have at least six weeks to become established before exposure to extremes of either hot or freezing weather. Mums are available at garden centers in up to one gallon containers. Choose bushy plants with plenty of leafy stems branching out at the base.
When planting, be sure to dig a hole at least twice the size of the root ball. Incorporate plenty of compost to help with drainage. Plant the mums at exactly the same depth they were in the pot to avoid water collection around the stems. Larger plants will require support structures and try not to walk in the mum beds to avoid compacting the soil.
Once you get them growing well, there’s not much you can do to stop them. To keep them looking great through the growth and bloom seasons, you’ll need to do some pruning. When they are done blooming in the fall, you should cut them back to 8 to 10 inches of the soil surfaces. Then in the early spring when growth starts again for the season, do another shearing. This will encourage lovely bushy full growth. Not pruning will give you leggy, floppy mums. As the season progresses, pinching off the tips of all the growing stems will promote side branches, fullness of growth and more blooms in the fall. As a general rule of thumb, stop pinching mums expected to produce large flowers around mid-July. Smaller types can be pinched until mid-August. Pinching after these dates will mean that you’re removing the developing flower buds.
Now that daylight has lessened and fall has settled in, these usually retiring plants will often take command of the garden and bloom into full glory. What a way to say goodbye to the growing season with one of the most popular perennials in the world!
Apples require regular management for producing quality fruit. Early spring will be the time for such maintenance activities as pruning and the spraying of a variety of oils to control pests. I’ve included a non-toxic, friendlier recipe for dormant oil later in this article.
Many of the sources I’ve interviewed about dormant oil have told me that it only need be applied once. However, several orchardists I’ve spoken with at the extension office have advised two applications; once when all of the leaves have fallen (late November or early December) and again in early February before the buds begin to swell. I hear that in some instances, gardeners are successful with only one application during the period of early December through late January. If the infestation or disease was very bad during the previous season, two sprayings would be the best bet. There are more details on stone fruit trees later on.
Pruning your apple trees is an essential practice since trees that are regularly pruned show improved fruit quality and size and the tree itself will be stronger and better able to support a load of fruit. Pruned trees are easier to work with if you keep the size and shape of the tree in check. And lastly, apple trees that are pruned on a regular basis are far less likely to have as many pest issues as trees that do not get as much attention.
Dormant pruning can begin in February and should be completed around the first of April. Each tree is an individual, just like people, and not every tree can be pruned exactly the same way. The general rules of pruning are to remove all damaged or diseased branches. Cut out the water sprouts. These are the quick growing upright branches that will clog up the center of the tree. And last, remove the suckers that will spring up around the base of the trunk.
Many other plants benefit from dormant spraying. Aside from pest control, potentially deadly fungal infections can be kept in check with dormant spraying. Deciduous trees, shrubs and roses – especially if they experienced an infestation or disease during the prior year - would all benefit from dormant spray.
In the spring, stone fruit trees should be sprayed when the flower color begins to appear on the end of the buds. Apples should be sprayed when the green tips are clearly visible on the leaf buds. It’s a good idea to delay spraying pears until the blossom cluster starts to separate and the individual buds are visible. If your pear trees were sticky and turned black last summer, add Thiodan to the spray. The pear russet mite is much slower to develop and generally emerge from under the bud scales and other hiding places.
With fruit trees, it is vital that all insecticidal sprays be completed before any blossoms open. Once the blossoms open, honey bees start to visit the trees. Although most oils are not harmful to honey bees, some of the other products that are mixed in with the oils are fatal. With all of the concerns about hive collapse, everyone needs to be a little more focused on the honey bee. Remember, honey bees are responsible for pollination. No bees, no food.
Spray on a clear day when there is little or no breeze. The ideal temperature for spraying is between 40 and 70 degrees. The perfect day would be 55 degrees that would remain constant for 24 hours in order to get the oil to spread out to cover the tree or shrub and soak into all the crooks and crevices. Complete coverage is necessary for effective control of over wintering pests. Apply this spray with one of those pump sprayer things. For insect control, use Dormant Spray Oil, Volck Oil or the dormant oil I’ve listed here. These will smother insects and their eggs in the same places as fungus and their spores. You can also mix in some lime sulphur for excellent control of insects and disease. Organic gardeners generally use only the oil, but other gardeners have found that diazinon increases the effectiveness of the oil product. Because these are OIL based products, you need to shake, not stir them to make sure they are well blended.
It is essential that you always follow the manufacturer’s recommendations when using any chemical product. Limit your spraying to those trees, shrubs and plants that had issues last season. If your roses had curl or black spot or mildew last year, dormant spray would certainly help that. However, widespread spraying can have an adverse effect on many beneficial insects that reside in your yard and garden areas.
Always wear a mask when spraying your plants with chemicals. Never use a dormant oil on evergreens. The chemicals are much too strong and caustic, and the evergreens are far too fragile to be able to cope with them. Annuals growing near or under the plants being treated should be covered before spraying, lest they be destroyed.
Finally, fungus spores can also over winter in fallen leaves. Be sure to rake and dispose of leaves if you’ve had any kind of disease problem. Besides, it’s just a good preventative measure.
Most commercial dormant oil products are made with kerosene of other petroleum oil products. A much less toxic and more sustainable approach is to use a renewable resource such as vegetable oil.
Take a cup of vegetable oil, 2 tablespoons of liquid soap (I prefer Ivory for use in the garden) and a gallon of water. Combine the soap and oil and blend thoroughly. Add the water a bit at a time, stirring as you go. Since water and oil, don’t really blend, the soap helps with this process. Pour the mixture into a clean garden spray container. Be sure to shake the container frequently as you spray.
Mum’s the word…
In the fall garden, chrysanthemums are the big diva showoffs, blooming prolifically after other garden plants have given up for the season. Aside from their obvious beauty, chrysanthemum is a favorite ingredient in Chinese herbal teas. In fact, tea with mums has been used for centuries for warding off sore throats and helping people recover from the flu.
Once mums are established, they are fairly easy to care for. Apply a liquid fertilizer, like fish emulsion, when your mums are blooming every three weeks. Some gardeners treat mums as annuals and replace them year after year while others prune them back and let them rebloom as biennials. In the right climate, mums can even be perennials. Be sure to dead head the flowers as they become spent to encourage more blooms and do discourage seed growth. If you’re after seeds, remember that they are incredibly tiny and you will have some work ahead of you to separate the seed from the brown foliage.
Mums like full early sun; at least 5 hours daily. Mums are susceptible to mildew. Keeping the plants dry is a priority. They need lots of air circulation, drainage and morning sun to dry the dew from the leaves and the stems. Don’t plant in low-lying, we, compacted, or boxed-in areas with poor air circulation. Mums blooming occurs in response to shorter days and longer nights. Avoid planting near streetlights or other nighttime light sources. They like a soil pH or around 6.5. Mums are pretty tough and can thrive on their own. They do benefit however from light and frequent feeding with a balanced fertilizer during the growing season.
Under perfect conditions, mums should be planted in early spring, after the danger of freezing weather has passed. They can really be planted at any time, though, as long as the roots have at least six weeks to become established before exposure to extremes of either hot or freezing weather. Mums are available at garden centers in up to one gallon containers. Choose bushy plants with plenty of leafy stems branching out at the base.
When planting, be sure to dig a hole at least twice the size of the root ball. Incorporate plenty of compost to help with drainage. Plant the mums at exactly the same depth they were in the pot to avoid water collection around the stems. Larger plants will require support structures and try not to walk in the mum beds to avoid compacting the soil.
Once you get them growing well, there’s not much you can do to stop them. To keep them looking great through the growth and bloom seasons, you’ll need to do some pruning. When they are done blooming in the fall, you should cut them back to 8 to 10 inches of the soil surfaces. Then in the early spring when growth starts again for the season, do another shearing. This will encourage lovely bushy full growth. Not pruning will give you leggy, floppy mums. As the season progresses, pinching off the tips of all the growing stems will promote side branches, fullness of growth and more blooms in the fall. As a general rule of thumb, stop pinching mums expected to produce large flowers around mid-July. Smaller types can be pinched until mid-August. Pinching after these dates will mean that you’re removing the developing flower buds.
Now that daylight has lessened and fall has settled in, these usually retiring plants will often take command of the garden and bloom into full glory. What a way to say goodbye to the growing season with one of the most popular perennials in the world!
