North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Deb Schneider <debs913@gmail.com>]

Bummer on the dog attack!  I hope you got reimbursed for the cost.  If dogs
kill livestock the owners have to pay...I'd think the same for trees!

Instead of mesh, you might look into electric mesh.  You can get 6 foot
sections of poultry net from Premier fence supply.  We have it around our
grapes and keep the solar charger on all the time except when picking.
 It's movable, so you could put it around different crops as they ripen.
 Also I swear by hardware cloth collars around the trees.  I'd have nothing
with all our rabbits and rodents without them.


On Sat, Aug 31, 2013 at 6:30 PM, fuwa fuwa usagi <
fuwafuwausagi@muchomail.com> wrote:

>
> Fluffy’s update…backyard growers report IL...far west burbs of Chicago
>
> Apples:
>
> For the first time Dayton has disappointed.  They started dropping early
> this year and were mealy, nice taste but the structure was broken down and
> lots of watercore.
>
> Liberty is absolutely bizarre this year.  Normally this ripens Oct 1st,
> this year it started dropping apples and ripening August first, some spot
> on delicious, others tart and starchy.  I took to dehydrating the obvious
> tart ones, and they make  a good dried product for snacking, and then
> eating the ones that look good, if the taste is not yet developed they get
> dehydrated.
>
> Honeycrisp entire crop wiped out trees and all…and ditto that for just
> about everything else  : (  Savage neighbors dog (pitbull) came into the
> area and decided to chew through just about every last tree (they were M27s
> and about 6 feet high).  It was unbelievable. I lost 40 trees and have 4
> left – sigh.  So if anyone wants to donate scion wood next spring left me
> know as I hope to cleft graft the stumps and hope they have enough energy
> to push out the scions…this is just sickening.  He also chewed away the
> pear benchgrafts I planted out.
>
> By the way, this M27 bearing in 2-3 years seems like nonsense to me. Most
> of mine took 6-7 years to fruit.   Northern Spy took 11.
>
> The survivors are Golden Russet, Razor Russet, Tompkins King County and
> maybe Ashmead’s Kernel though it lteh later two look pretty chewed up and
> no apples left.
>
> Pears:
>
> I had a small yield of Harvest Queen starting 3rd week of July and it was
> outstanding, I have one left.   These tree ripened and were exquisite.
>  Harrow Sweet is developing nicely, as is Potomac and Warren, I never got
> Potomac thinned and it suffered from it.  My Asians most got taken out by
> fireblight, except Chojuro which has one or two small fruits.     Magness
> got taken out by fireblight this year (3rd time that has happened).  By the
> way, for those who think Warren is Magness, all I can say is, side by side
> on 3 occasions Magness has been taken out by fireblight and Warren was not
> even effected.  Other than that though I cannot tell them apart ( but since
> I am a home grower that is a very insignificant sample).    Seckle produced
> its little heart out, even with a huge amount of squirrel predation.
>
> Raspberries:
>
> I bought Taylor again after letting my land go fallow fro 7 years, and
> replanted Taylor and it is struggling to take hold. My stock was from
> Nourse and at first I wondered if the variety was right as it fruited at
> the wrong time etc  but this year it was spot on.  They are not spreading
> much though and I seem to have lost some.  The soil is rich etc, but the
> drought last year and the dry spell this year did not do them any favors.
> But the taste, of yes the taste, that is what you grow them for and they
> excel in this regard.
>
> Heritage is looking good for the fall.  It survived a heavy attack by
> Japanese beetles.
>
> Grapes:
>
> Well we got a handful.  The squirrels, coons, possums, neighbor hood dogs,
> birds took them again.  The dogs and coons make short work of any netting
> and it is just sad.  Reliance, Interlakenseedless, Candice.
>
> Blackberries:
>
> Triple Crown.  In all the years we have had this we never managed to get
> more than a handful of this prolific, giant plant.  If not for animals then
> they got froze out, etc, etc and the little woman kept wanting me to pull
> them and plant something practical.   This year however – good grief what a
> crop.   Easily 30 pints off of a 10 foot row.
>
> Peaches:
>
> Modest crop of Belle of Georgia this year due to pruning.  A few days from
> ripening.  I ate a couple of animal cropped ones and even unripe and hard
> they are sweet.  This is an awesome peach.
>
> Plums:
>
> All that is left (animals had there way with the actual trees, rabbits
> barked all but one) is French Prune.  It is okay for what it is, but I
> would never grow it again unless I had better conditions.  I would much
> rather spend my time spraying and thinning Japanese plums that size up and
> are designed to beaten out of hand when tree ripe.  In the past I have
> grown Ozark Premier and the AU series with terrific results.  Animals and
> age took them out.
>
> Sour cherries:
>
> North Star continues to impress me.  Delicious easy to grow, one spray if
> that is all they need around here to take care of PC.
>
> Sweet cherries:
>
> I have Lapins and every year brown rot gets them.  The tree has a very big
> diameter trunk I prune to keep it at 18ftbut it is a struggle.  If it was
> smaller (diameter size) I would cut it down, but it is too large for me to
> handle.
>
>
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