North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Kieran &/or Donna" <holycow@frontiernet.net>]

It seems to me that rain and cool weather slow the curculios down, but the 
moment the sun comes out they set to work.  That means not having Surround 
on is not as big a deal during the actual downpour, but when it stops, the 
Surround needs to be there for the few hours before another rain starts.  I 
don't have much hope of a plum crop here after last years' massive fruit 
crops (in response to the previous years' across the board freezeout) so I 
haven't sprayed Surround.  It's been raining almost nonstop here since Mt 
Redoubt went off, about 5 weeks now.  I noted that plums were not bothered 
too much till we got some warm dry weather for a day or two.  I've been 
picking off the stunted ones and pitching them in a bucket of water.  I'm 
thinking about spraying some seaweed on the tree to see if the others will 
plump up really big.  Japanese plums bloom too early here, but they get a 
head start on the curculios and sometimes are fit to eat.  The ones with 
scars on the skin but no bug inside interest me most, but I suppose those 
are simply feeding scars?  Some are crescent shaped though.  When I remove a 
curculio scar with my fingernail from a green plum, sometimes the grub has 
gone too deep to get it out, and the tiny line of brown it leaves is barely 
visible.  I know someone mentioned the grubs being squeezed to death in what 
was it, pears?  apples?  I figure that if a plum was bred to chemically kill 
the PC grubs, it would be bad for humans.  But if it could outgrow the grub, 
that would probably be good.    Donna