To: nafex mailing list at ibiblio <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [nafex] solution for fruit drop in oriental persimmons?
Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2012 10:18:12 -0500
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