To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: [NAFEX] crows
Date: Thu, 09 Aug 2007 10:53:24 -0700
Crows are the local apple pest.
Even though it is only August and the apples won't be ripe for six weeks
or more, they are pecking at my Hudson's Golden Gem (HGG).
I net the trees and this works using blueberry netting (about 1/2" holes).
The other varieties they peck are Karmijn de Sonnaville (this has the
highest sugars I have ever recorded - 14.5% soluble solids) and
Liberties. I don't know why the Liberty apples.
The plastic shelters help a lot since the crows won't go up under the
shelter, but they will peck anything they can reach from the ground. The
shelters also make it easier to net the lower half of the tree.