North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

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

William,  I agree with the too much N problem, which supposedly causes 
figs to drop fruit.  But I wonder what the chances are that you have a 
boron deficiency?  It sure will cause citrus to drop!  Southern red and 
yellow clays are generally B deficient, and if you bring up pH and 
organic matter, the B that is there becomes less available.  You could 
do a CEC soil test, or try planting beets and turnips under your trees 
to see if they grow well.   Beets just won't grow at all with low Boron, 
and turnips will have hollow black hearts.  I've been using borax on the 
soil, sprinkling it like fairy dust.  But what I OUGHT to be doing is 
spraying with Solubor.  I just don't like the price, and have thought 
I'd never use up a 30 lb bag, but just found a friend bought the stuff 
to use on their soil.  They used theirs all up and would like more, so 
maybe we'll split a bag.  I didn't know I could just buy it at the 
Farmers Coop, thought I had to mail order it or go to McMinnville to the 
big nursery suppliers.
    When I got my husband to take some borax around and talk to my 
trees, he said the apples really wanted it, the persimmons didn't care, 
and the walnut positively cringed.  With the walnut he got an image of 
sap running and oozing.  I never tell him what I know already when I ask 
him to talk to plants for me, so he didn't know that apples love boron 
and walnuts hate it.  Walnuts are very sappy trees, almost impossible to 
graft because the sap pressure will push the cuts ends apart.  The 
persimmon he talked to is in soil that hasn't had a lot of change from 
the original clay. That's probably why it hardly crops, not like the 
tree I grafted it from, which was right where a farmer parks his round 
bales of hay every year.  Were I to up pH and organic matter there, it 
might want boron too.  He's told me since that there's something it 
wants, but he couldn't figure out what it was.     Donna