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Maria, One more thing on this topic: Several times I've encountered statements of calcium deficiency hurting apple fruiting. My yard was bare sand - basalt/volcanic - with a terribly shallow root zone in an area where Ponderosa Pines once predominated and were scattered with considerable room between trees. Since my ducks supplement their feed 9 months of the year with the insects and green matter scrounged in my big back yard (yes, there are breeds that forage for bugs quite well besides muscovy: Hookbill, Welsh Harlequin, Campbell and Runner may top the list while Peking and most heavy wieghts are too slow and bulky), they also get feed with 1 to 2 percent calcium for egg shell making. I know their droppings are slowly contributing to the overall fertility of my yard, including boosting calcium levels. The first crop of apples last fall were sizable, lovely and worth waiting for. Hope this helps, Dave From: mariaschu@vtlink.net Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2011 21:21:42 -0500 To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org Subject: Re: [NAFEX] ducks I'm considering getting ducks for our orchard-- but what about duck poop? We use all of our apple drops. Would the ducks still help with insect pressure if they were only in the orchard early in the summer (here that means around June 1) and in the fall after harvest? Maria z.3/4 On Jan 25, 2011, at 8:52 PM, david liezen wrote: The climate around my back yard is drier than across the river, south of here. Often I see thunderstorms miss my place by a mile to the north (a flat-top hill about 300' higher) and three miles to the south (part of Palouse country leading to higher ground and the Rockies). I had planted what seemed likely cultivars of apples and found Queen Cox unsuited to the dry and hot we get every year. It's being top-worked this spring. _______________________________________________ nafex mailing list nafex@lists.ibiblio.org Reproduction of list messages or archives is not allowed. This includes distribution on other email lists or reproduction on web sites. Permission to reproduce is NEVER granted, so don't claim you have permission! **YOU MUST BE SUBSCRIBED TO POST!** Posts from email addresses that are not subscribed are discarded. No exceptions. ---- To subscribe or unsubscribe, go to the bottom of this page (also can be used to change other email options): http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/nafex File attachments are NOT stripped by this list. TAKE STEPS TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM COMPUTER VIRUSES! Please do not send binary files. Use plain text ONLY in emails! NAFEX web site: http://www.nafex.org/ |
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