I came across this snippet in the Aug. issue of The Avant Gardener.
"Pampering plants can be bad for their health: in tests at Pennsylvania
State University, apple trees stressed by withholding water and fertilizer
had less fireblight, and in general showed increased resistance to
diseases."
I'm seeing this in my mini orchard, as I haven't done anything to it since
Feb. due to knee surgery and a broken shoulder. The apples and Asian pears
are smaller than normal, because I didn't thin. All are fireblight and
disease-free. Coddling moths, however, did a lot of damage to the apples.
The Asian pears look to be damage-free.
I picked two large baskets of Concord grapes yesterday from just one vine.
I've never had big a large crop, and the individual grapes were larger than
in previous years.
Yup! I've been working too hard.
Doreen Howard
IL-WI Border (Zone 4b)