North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Richard L. Wagner" <rewagner@centurytel.net>]

When we first moved here six years ago I planted about 100 assorted 
fruit trees in a home orchard plot. About a week before deer season was 
to open all but three were destroyed in a single night by bucks (we had 
15 deer at once in our yard on several ocassions) and those three were 
so mangled they may as well have been dead. I have since erected an 8 
ft fence4 and replanted about 50 trees. No more deer problems but 
something worse. 

I have been spraying with Bonide as it was recommended by local 
garden/feed store. If I can find Imidan I will try it.. 

When we moved here we loved this country (except for the ticks and 
chiggers,  I am now scarred for life) and the summer rain and green 
grass. I never envisioned how bad the pest and disease problem would 
be. If it isn't fungus and bacteria on the ornamentals it is everything 
else on everything else. I spent 62 years in the fruit regions of 
California and Oregon. No one knew what chiggers were and only once had 
I seen a tick, a single one on my dog, after a day of quail hunting in 
the blackberry thickets along the Umpqua River in Oregon. I had plums, 
cherries, apricots and, peaches and never sprayed. My only problem was 
the codling moths on the pears and apples but since they were for my 
own consumption I just ate around the hole. 

Oh well life is short. At least it won't last forever. 



Quoting Jim Freeman <jf@gctruck.com>:
> Hi Richard,
>
> We also have lots of plum curculio pressure and have never found any
> stone fruit that can resist them. We manage them by timely application
> of Imidan at petal fall. If we wait even a week later, we will have much
> more damage. Sometimes we spray in the evening to avoid hurting the
> bees, if they are still present. 
>
> When we planted our first peaches in 2002, we were told that deer do not
> bother peaches and the few we had planted did fine. In 2009, we planted
> an additional 800 peach trees. The deer did not eat the buds but they
> love to rub the trunks and branches with their antlers. We eventually
> had to fence the entire orchard to avoid deer damage. When the trees are
> severely damaged, we replace them regardless of age. Nursing damaged
> peach trees has not been productive for us. 
>
> Jim Freeman
> Freedom Farms LLC
> www.freedomfruit.net
> Zone 7a N. Georgia
>
> -----Original Message-----
> Are there any stone fruits with any resistance to the plum curculio?
> Despite three sprayings in both of the last two years we have not been
> able to get a single uninfected fruit. We may as well consider all stone
> fruits as ornamental only. 
>
> Richard Wagner
> southern Missouri Ozarks z 6b/7a
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