[NAFEX] Peach anti-freeze
Heron Breen
breen at fedcoseeds.com
Wed Dec 14 19:43:09 EST 2005
Hi Sports Fans,
I had the great privilege of talking with Garfield Schultz by phone the other day.
He is one of the old guard (80+ years old) of NAFEX, wise in experience and quick
to the point. Very sly businessman too! He knows he has some good stuff he's bred
and he doesn't send most people scionwood (me included, although he promised a few
odds and ends someday). Apparently he has a cherry-plum that you would sell your
first-born for.
He has bred a number of cultivars of various species, many of them of very high
quality and at least one has been trademarked by Stark's nursery and sold by the
thousands. You've probably read his entries in Pomona.
He passed on a trick, which maybe some of you know, but which was new to me. He
stated that one could spray rubbing alcohol followed by a spray of food grade
calcium chloride on a at least 35 degree F late Fall day. Spraying this regimen
onto your trees would enhance their winter hardiness exponentially. He felt this
had particular usefulness for Peaches.
This regimen could also be sprayed again in Spring, two weeks before estimated
flowering date. This would make blooms very resistant to frost damage.
Garfield felt this was an ideal technique for us 3-4-5 zone folks to try.
I haven't tried it this, and don't know much about it. I haven't had time to
research exactly how this works, but I know calcium plays lots of roles with cell
and tree stress response and water maintenance.
If you know more, or have tried this, enlighten us, please. If you end up giving
this a shot at some point, let us know your results. I trust Garfield's wisdom, but
he wasn't specific about application rates per tree or those kinda of things, so
your tree might get damaged by my detail vacant post.
Thought I would pass it on before I forgot to.
Heron Breen
zone 4, Maine
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