Dormant oil spray discovery

[Carol Dee]

Good Luck @Smiles Jr. Having apples so close to harvest and then gone would make me pretty upset. You got lots of great suggestions. Sorry to hear the leg is still a bother. So I will send up some prayers for some healing before garden season.

 

[so lucky]

@Smiles Jr. , are your dogs friendly to people? I am just wondering if someone could have been camping/hiding/traveling through the area, such as gypsies at that time last year. If you and your wife work away from home, and your dogs are friendly, there's no telling what kind of parties could have been going on last September.

 

[ducks4you]

did you see signs of flower buds at all on them last year? how about frost on the buds/flowers if you did see them. sometimes the frost can cause some issues & make the buds damaged so they don't pollinate correctly & this may give you issues with loss of fruit.

college/university websites are my best source of learning-even if i didn't pay to go there!
http://msue.anr.msu.edu/news/assessing_frost_and_freeze_damage_to_flowers_and_buds_of_fruit_trees

found this neat site looking for your possible issue from the previous year with the 'bumpy' fruits.
http://pnwhandbooks.org/plantdisease/host-disease-descriptions?page=1

I don't know what part of IN that you live, but I live in Champaign County, central IL, and we lost most of fruit tree's fruit a few years ago due to high temperatures followed by a severe cold snap. we had something like that in 2015, and I was afraid of a repeat. What was your weather like last Spring?
Funny, though, I thought that the grapes were toast, but THEY grew back fruit.

 

[catjac1975]

I have seen a squirrel strip a whole peach tree in a day. Though he would take one...

 

[Nyboy]

I had the very same thing happen to pear tree. Trees branches where bending so much fruit.Right before going to pick, the pears vanished, only 2 at very top of tree. no pears on ground. Tree was planted by road at weekend home. I am sure 2 legged thief.

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

I don't know what part of IN that you live, but I live in Champaign County, central IL, and we lost most of fruit tree's fruit a few years ago due to high temperatures followed by a severe cold snap. we had something like that in 2015, and I was afraid of a repeat. What was your weather like last Spring?
Funny, though, I thought that the grapes were toast, but THEY grew back fruit.

i'm in NH. last spring we had so much snow but it seemed like a mild & cool spring for us here in the northeast. ground stayed wet for most of the season in my area but i live on a 'hill' in my hometown so i have slightly different weather than the rest of the town. i don't remember having many issues with frost. my parents live at the northern end so i know they got more frost hitting their part of town later in the season.

 

[ninnymary]

So sorry that happened to you smiles. I lost all my apples last year too. But for me, the apples were partly eaten and still on the tree. None were on the ground. We do have squirrels but I was told by another gardener that it was rats. My tree is pruned small enough that I will be netting it this spring.

Mary

 

[Ridgerunner]

Apple trees, like some other fruit trees, need a certain number of "cold days". Off the top of my head I don't remember the exact definition or even the exact phrase, but I find my apple trees normally bear really well after a really hard winter. I haven't seen that cold weather here yet this year.

Then you have the problem of it warming up and they set blooms, then a hard frost kills the fruit. I had that happen a couple of years ago. The last hard frost was actually on schedule but it had warmed up enough earlier that they were blooming too early. It wiped out my peaches and plums, totally. I've noticed apple blooming season stretches out a bit so I had some apples, just not a lot.

 

[thistlebloom]

So, obviously your apples didn't just vaporize Smiles Jr. There is an explanation, and it has to be logical, and after reading everybody's input, it seems likely to me that it's squirrels.

A trail cam will be a great detecting device later in the season.

As to your Dormant Oil Discovery, I wonder what those inert ingredients are? A sticker/spreader maybe?

 

[digitS']

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilling_requirement @Ridgerunner

I have wondered about the choice of oils as insecticides. My guess is that mineral oil is not a great choice for summer because microbes have trouble getting it off the living tree tissue ... or, maybe the tree can metabolize other oils. That staying power is the reason it is a good choice during dormancy.

"Summer oils" are also mineral oils, however. That term just defines a class not including things like neem oil. Smiles, you are right to think about soap as an addition but you might be taking some risks with anything ... including what is made for use.

The last couple of years, I've been seeing how neem oil will work for me through the growing season. I learned quickly, on one Brussels sprouts plant, NOT to risk sun damage by spraying midday!

Steve