North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["victoria l. caron" <vicaron@gis.net>]

Well I was a little miffed this weekend to see one of the dozen fruit trees
in my yard toppled over from the wind. Close examination showed very obvious
borer damage. Now maybe it was arrogance, but I have repeatedly been negligent
in this department assuming it would NEVER happen to me. Wrong!
This little tree has never hit five feet and has been there for five years.
Some of this is due to the fact that it is a result of 'the tag said one
thing and my notes something else.' Eventually giving up on what the tag
said, I've been trying to make it into a multivar apple tree like several
others I have made with good results. This tree consistently has little
growth compared to its neighbors, not all of it due to my constant surgery.
Amazingly, there has been absolutely no wilting. I know this means
something too. The grading stake that I use for small trees was also broken,
so I staked the tree back up with a fiberglass electric fence post (to
avoid more damage). Being on M7, the tree has lots of root suckers. I took
three of these and wound them in a network pattern around the trunk to
about one foot high. Over this I wrapped a very strong 1/2 in wide rubber
band. I left about 1/4 to 1/2 inch between courses to admit air. If the
theory (not mine but I agree) is correct, these suckers should, if held
tightly enough, grow into and bridge the damaged area. I'm optimistic enough
to hope that this operation could also solve the slow growth problem if
I can watch for the bores from now on.
An update on several other experiments I tried this year:
- about the Davey tree that was completely girdled and to which I too
quickly, without thinking, applied latex caulking to cover the entire girdling,
including the cuts for the one bridge graft I managed to set over the lumpy
original graft union - it is doing great! making lots of new growth. I
suspect the bridge is working well but still won't know for some time the
consequences of the caulking compound on the tissues.
- MSM used to supply sulfur to peppers - all the leaves slowly wilted
and fell off. The flower buds remained and are starting to bloom, new leaves
are appearing. Maybe it was too strong of a solution, about 1/4 tsp dissolved
and shared by 4 peppers and 6 tomatoes. The tomatoes seemed less affected.
Also, the second night after application, temps dropped to 32 on our deck
where the plants were lightly covered. The plants that were treated with
MSM were also on the outer edge of the tray furthest from the wall of the
house, so there could have been some frost damage that the other peppers
did not suffer. I have also noticed in the past that when we get our fall
frosts, certain varieties of tomato plants seem able to take temps down
to 28 degrees with no browning and keep ripening fruit for some time, while
the peppers can succumb at 32. That may have happened here where my tomatoes
(grape) were very well hardened off.
vic NH zone 3

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