North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Richard Moyer <ramoyer@gmail.com>]

Caren,
See below for a post on this listserv in 2010.  You asked about organic
methods, and some soybean oil, if I remember correctly, is certified
organic.  Note the reference below is from a symposium on plant dormancy.

Don't know if the potassium spray mentioned is organic certified or not.

I recall some folks recommending mulching the roots well in winter, to
delay soil warming and therefore bloom by a few days.  Can't speak to
whether this one works or not.

Richard Moyer
SW VA  Redbuds in full bloom yesterday, tent caterpillar nests seen first
time today.  Some pears already in full bloom.


At the Southern Fruit Fellowship meeting held in Bristol, TN around 12
years ago, Dr. Dennis Deyton, UTenn-Knoxville presented work on
delaying fruit blooms with sprays of soybean oil.  More recent work
has included blueberries.

See reference below; you could contact him or colleague Carl Sams
directly for a more easily accessible review of their work in delaying
apple bloom.

Here in the Southern Appalachians, we often lose apples to late
freezes during bloom.  Out of 20 or so apple cultivars over the last
15 years, 'Williams Pride' and 'Liberty' are the ones that crop every
year, regardless of when and how our spring freezes occur.  If memory
serves correct, they were the only ones to bear after the Great Easter
Freeze of 2007, though at reduced yields.  'Liberty' has some issues
of overbearing most years and a very short stem, but still we've made
a place for it in our new orchard.  William's Pride can have internal
breakdown (water core?) some years, but we managed that by applying
calcium and by picking on the early side.

Richard Moyer
SW VA
Deyton, D.E., C.E. Sams, and R.E. Myers. 1994. Delay of Bloom of Apple
and Peach Trees with Dormant Applications of Oil. First Intl. Symp. on
Plant Dormancy. Corvallis, OR, 4-6 Aug. Corvallis, OR. p. 170.