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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] the Bees(Earthworms), and the spring in my orchard

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  • From: "Erdman, James" <ErdmanJ@uwstout.edu>
  • To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] the Bees(Earthworms), and the spring in my orchard
  • Date: Fri, 25 May 2007 07:57:58 -0500


I'm in western Wisconsin, an hour east of St Paul, MN. We have been doing
some work around our yard, specifically building a retaining wall near one of
our vegetable gardens (that is gradually becoming my tree/berry nursery), and
it involves digging a few feet into our heavy clay soil. All the earthworms
that we have seen have been in small knotted clumps, and the soil is bone dry
once you get under the surface a few inches. Then, in the last 2 days we
have gotten about 2 1/2 inches (2.5) of rain, so it will be interesting to
see what this has done to the soil moisture.

Regarding bees, so far this spring I have seen exactly 2 (two) honeybees,
both on dandelions. I saw none at all on fruit tree blossoms, but did see
numerous smaller varieties of bees that I didn't identify, and I do have what
appears to be good fruit set on apples, pears, apricots, plums, etc.,
although my little peach tree that had a single blossom didn't set fruit. We
did have almost a week of 18 to 20 degree low temps in April when some trees
were just starting to show a few buds opening, so I was very surprised to see
all the trees blossom and set fruit. Now there is just the rest of the
summer to make it through.

Most of my apple and pear bench grafts that looked so good last fall didn't
make it through the winter, but I did graft more this spring, including
trying pears on amelanchier (serviceberry) rootstock, having been inspired by
David Sliwa's orchard workshop last summer.

I rented a chipper a few weeks ago and my sons and I spent a long day
chipping up lots of brush, branches, and limbs, and ended up with probably
about 12 to 15 cubic yards of wood chips, and cleared up a lot of mess. I
used a lot of the chips to mulch berries and fruit trees. I have been trying
to mulch more and mow less often. I also got a used Troy Bilt sickle bar
mower to replace my ailing Gravely, so that I can mow more reliably in the
orchard.

Jim Erdman, in Menomonie, WI

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