North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Ward Barnes" <ward_p_barnes@hotmail.com>]

Good Morning:

At the recommendation of a NAFEX member I tried Neem oil on my peach trees.  
The results were favorable on brown rot, but, not as good as I had hoped.  I 
am expecting better results next year as I was unable to get the oil applied 
until after the brown rot had a start on some of the fruit.

My plum harvest was a bust.  About 1 and 1/2 weeks from prime harvest a 
heavy wind storm came through the orchard and sent 95% of the fruit to the 
ground.  A two day rain has finally broken the drought.  The lack of rain 
may have affected the ability of the plums to hang onto the branches or I 
may have to add something to the soil.  Any suggestions?

Apples and Grapes look to be a banner year and I will be making both apple 
and grape jelly/jam.  Several families from our Christian Fellowship will be 
joining my family for the harvest and canning.

For my first year in planting tomatoes I used two year old horse compost in 
the vegetable bed and then covered the bed in a porous fabric to control 
weeds and retain moisture.  I had to re-stake the plants twice and they are 
now over 8 feet tall.  I have more tomatoes then I can give away.

The Japanese Beatles were a problem in the eggplant and cherry but not to 
the point where they were not controllable.  After a spring attack the 
beatles left the grapevines alone (I did not spray the vines).

Tent caterpillars made an appearance in the English walnuts and I used fire 
applied to a wad of newspaper on the end of a stick to burn the nests.  
Seems to have done the trick.  I expect a small pecan harvest as the trees 
are finally old enough to bear.

Ward Barnes
Coastal Zone 7/8
Wake, VA.




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