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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] Cherry Tree Lunacy

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  • From: "Stephen Sadler" <Docshiva@Docshiva.org>
  • To: "'North American Fruit Explorers'" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Cherry Tree Lunacy
  • Date: Fri, 8 Jun 2007 13:14:15 -0700

I've used netting on miniature/very dwarfed trees for bird control, and row
cover for some frost protection of a fig. My best success with keeping
birds out of cherries was a combination of planting yellow/blushed varieties
and planting a tree of what we called pin cherries nearby - bright red,
mostly pit - someone here will have an idea of what this trap tree actually
was. We're out west, not pin cherry country, and the fruit seemed smaller
than pin cherries. These was years back, though, and the only thing I'm
certain of is that those wee cherries had the birds in a feeding frenzy, and
the almost completely ignored the blush cherries. It fruited at exactly the
same time, making it a perfect trap crop.

I'm trying a new squirrel repellant this year, will report back. For the
past 26 years, wherever I've gardened, we've had raccoons. We've been
lucky, they've never done significant damage. I think there's been enough
cat and other animal feed to keep them satisfied, which was fine with me. I
have a strong personal preference for sweet corn over Cat Chow, so we were
all happy.

~ Stephen

-----Original Message-----
From: nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Mark Dorogi
Sent: Friday, June 08, 2007 8:32 AM
To: 'North American Fruit Explorers'
Subject: [NAFEX] Cherry Tree Lunacy

This year I'm determined to get just a few ripe cherries off of our 15'
Schmidt's Biggereau cherry tree. The raccoons, squirrels, and birds love
this tree, and all I get is to clean up cherry pits on the ground.

I've hung a dozen pie tins in the tree, and put a aluminum flashing guard
over the trunk to try to keep the raccoons out of it.

The tree is too big to put netting over. I hate bird netting. What I
thought of was covering individual branches with floating row cover. I
loosely wrap it around a branch loaded with cherries and clip it together in
a few spots with paper clips:
http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o116/mddorogi/CherryTree002.jpg

Somewhat tedious; I need to come up with a better way to secure and close up
the "row cover baggie".

Has anyone done this, or for that matter just covered a whole tree with
floating row cover? It would probably work on my smaller Northstar Cherry,
which is only about 6' tall. The row cover is easier to work with than bird
netting IMO.

The tree: http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o116/mddorogi/CherryTree001.jpg



Mark






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