North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Douglas Woodard <dwoodard@becon.org>]

Mark, why don't you tell us what kind of bugs go after the Swaar and the 
Ashmead's Kernel, and what countermeasures you have been trying.

Perhaps list members could make suggestions as to cultivars that could 
be grafted into the Mother trees to blossom with them.

Mark, if you really want to change cultivars maybe you could graft your 
old trees over to new cultivars.

Of old, good-quality cultivars, Adam's Pearmain, Jefferis, Ribston and 
Kidd's Orange Red are said to be relatively trouble-free, although I 
have no personal experience with them

Doug Woodard
St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada


Mark Dorogi wrote:
> My 10-tree orchard is around seven years old now.  Some trees just seem to
> either not produce well or to be very bug prone, so I'm thinking of cutting
> some down and replacing them with (fewer of) something else.
>
> However, it is a bit hard to cut down trees when they are getting
> nice-sized, after years of pruning, shaping, and maintenance.  Maybe I
> haven't given them a long enough chance.
>
> The candidates for the axe are:
> - Tompkins King: too much water core
> - Swaar: late ripening, hard to keep bug free that long, erratic producer
> - Mother: I have two, neither produce really well, they flower later than
> everything else
> - Ashmead's Kernel: produces well, but the bugs really go after this one
> making it hard to get anything, late ripening.
>
> The ones that seem to be worth the trouble are Lymans Large Summer, Cox's
> Orange Pippin, Kerry Pippen, Calville Blanc d'Hiver, and Esopus Spitzenberg.
>
> So I'm trying to bring myself to chop some down and replace with one or two
> conventional types - Braeburn and Honeycrisp were on my short list - and
> wait another bunch of years to see if they work out any better.
>
> I can't see putting work into trees that for whatever reason don't produce
> well, but I'm also unsure whether I'll get better results with replacements.
>
>
> I'd appreciate any advice!
>
>
> Mark
> SE Michigan