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nafex - [NAFEX] Re: nafex digest, Vol 1 #98 - 5 msgs

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  • From: <redherring@tnaccess.com>
  • To: <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [NAFEX] Re: nafex digest, Vol 1 #98 - 5 msgs
  • Date: Thu, 1 Aug 2002 08:06:11 -0500

Doc, you said:
Givan suggested Chicago Hardy Fig for me
several years ago but his climate is different and it is a poor tasting
fig and a low producer here.
My area was fair for peaches, cotton and asparagus when I was a boy in
the '30s but only asparagus, some blueberries, some muscadines and some
figs will produce fairly well here now

This could be differences in climate, and climate change making peaches not
grow well, but blueberries love acid soil, and asparagus doesn't mind it. I
would not want to say you neglected something as basic as lime (pun
intended), but your Ca/Mg could be skewed and the standard soil tests
wouldn't spot it. A CEC soil test from A&L Labs (look them up on the Net)
would tell you if it's a soil imbalance. The tests were only $12 for a
complete test a few years ago. You can spend far more if you want trace
minerals on those crummy tests the ag agents offer. It may be that your
area has always had a mineral imbalance, and that the oldtimers got around
it by using manure, which has a broad spectrum of nutrients. Or maybe the
soil was simply "weak" and has lost too many nutrients to do well till they
are resupplied.
I see that Fluff has responded similarly, and indeed, lack of organic
matter is a problem throughout the south. (Though I didn't realize till
Lucky alerted us that it was the dang earthworms eating up my organic matter
all along! ) But you say more revealing things....

" I have a "seckel
pear" I got from that area which I think is a different variety or else
the climate changed it. The June Bugs love it though, as well as the
Japanese Beetles. When I beat them to one, it tastes like cardboard."

Sounds like low sugars, the tree is too stressed by something, probably lack
of nutrients or unavailable nutrients.

>From my bushes I got three berries this year and my Hawthorn
fruiting cultivar beat it out by producing twelve berries. Both of these
trees/bushes are eight years old. This was a good year for them (drought
held the insects population down).

Hey, this sounds like me! I planted apple trees 8 years ago that are still
only 4 feet high. I throw some lime around them in the winter till I get
the pH up enough that a little clover will grow under them. They get maybe
a bucket of urine a year, and occasionally some phosphate, otherwise I wait
for the local soil to feed them. Only it doesn't seem to be doing that.
The only fruit trees that have grown and bloomed are the ones that are close
enough to the edge of the garden to get their roots over into the improved
soil from all the compost we have trucked in. Chinese chestnuts and
blueberries seem happiest of all that I have planted out of reach of the
garden. The name of the local community is "Peeled Chestnut" which may tell
you what kind of trees the place used to have. The property has some native
lowbush blueberries, which I have found will crop a little if fertilized. I
have cleared out around some native Juneberries, haven't eaten a Juneberry
yet. It's pretty bad when native trees won't even grow. There are
Juneberries I have been watching for 7 years that have barely grown an inch
in that time.
If I have proved anything, I have proved that our bulldozed, worn out
acidic upland clay is really as bad as the soil survey says it is. I've
also proved that the same soil can even grow perfect cabbages given enough
organic matter and lime over 7 years. Since I have trees that have limped
along this long without chemical fertilizers (my husband is adamant about
it, and my son has warned me about the use of fertilizer factories as a way
to get rid of toxic wastes), I am working on improving soil tilth around
them by throwing tree trimmings and cornstalks around them.
But doc, there must be some old fruit trees in your area that crop.
They may have been planted beside a privy or barn back at the beginning, but
at least they would be trees that like your CLIMATE. Climate is heat and
humidity and sudden frosts, that is what us southerners are all stuck with.
SOIL is our other problem. My motto on variety selection is: "If it's been
in Tennessee for 30 years and it's not dead yet, it's a good variety." But
these same trees, grafted and planted on my poor soil, just sit there. Look
to your soil, you'd be amazed what a tree can endure if it's got all the
nutrients it needs. AVAILABLE nutrients that is, and decent soil tilth to
have it's roots in. Even putting organic matter on top of the soil will
affect tilth as those earthworms (that I now distrust) eat the organic
matter, bring it down into the soil and make vertical tunnels to improve
water holding capacity and aeration. I think that your existing trees will
come out of their funk if you do and A&L test and try to address the
problems you find that way. Apples, pears, and peaches at least ought to
perk up, as they don't seem to hate our climate all that much. You may find
local trees from which to regraft some of your poor adapted varieties. Good
luck, and tell us what your soil test says. Donna





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