North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Ginda Fisher <ginda@concentric.net>]

I have gone out to shake heavy snow off my crab apples.  It's never
seemed to hurt them, and they spring back up pretty quickly.  I only
have two crabs (one sags much more from snow than the other) and I've
only tried to free them of snow a few times, but so far, it's worked
fine.

Of course, the one time I just left them, the snow melted several days
later, and they were fine on their own.

Ginda

> Michael Phillips wrote:
> 
> We are coming into tight cluster here in northern New Hampshire just
> now . . . spring has become intense with finishing the pruning,
> planting new trees, and spreading compost.  Most incredibly, we
> finally got up an 8-wire deer fence around the hillside orchard and
> will soon complete a fence for the new block as well. Nothing like a
> state fencing grant deadline from Fish'N'Game (to keep out their
> cloven devils!) to get that job done.
> 
> Anyhow, before the memories of this past winter's deep snows fade, I
> have some questions to pose to all you southerners (which is something
> I can say about almost all of you except Victoria Caron and our
> Canadian members). I lost most of the lower branches on my
> three-year-old M.9 trees, simply ripped off the trunk anywhere from
> three feet down by the icy pull of crusting snow. I had thought I'd do
> more damage going out and trying to free the buried branches. I was
> wrong. Does anyone else in snow country have suggestions for future
> deep winters? My youngest standards also lost some branches but
> there's room on those to grow ever higher. I'm assuming the gaping
> tears will heal over and the trunk can recover structurally. The M.9
> trees have a 6' rail stake for support. Any suggestions for a bark
> healing salve?
> 
> The bigger shocker occurred in the nursery. I had whip-grafted 50
> MM.111 and 50 M.26 rootstock last spring. My daughter's baby goats
> nipped them in midsummer, but each recovered enough to have a 2 to 3
> foot whip going into winter. The crushing snow took every one. And
> most broke just above the healed splice of the graft . . . but
> generally close enough for me to think any scion buds are gone. Here's
> a case where the latent buds of the rootstock were stripped off
> regularly last summer. I don't know if I'll be having a chance to bud
> on to new growth or not this summer. I didn't think the snow would
> wipe away single vertical shoots. Ironically, this was the first year
> we had no vole damage whatsoever.
> 
> The best lesson I can figure (seemingly as always) is to move to a
> more hospitable climate!
> 
> Michael Phillips
> Lost Nation Orchard
> Heartsong Farm Healing Herbs
> RFD 1  Box 275
> Groveton, NH 03582
> 603-636-2286
> 
> 
> 
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