Fruit tree warning...

[lesa]

Every spring I have been trying to add a few fruit trees to the garden.. Last year I put in a plum tree. It came with that plastic cylinder around the trunk to prevent rodent chewing, etc. It was loose and adjustable, so I left it on. Last night, as I was doing my bug squishing duty, I noticed quite a few caterpillars on the leaves. As I was picking them off, I thought gee, I wonder if they are under this plastic thing. Yikes!! The tree trunk was covered with caterpillars, under that plastic. So, my advice to you, if you have those things on your trees take them off! I will wrap the trunk again come fall- but I don't want to make a cozy home for critters! Beginning to remember why I had never planted fruit trees....

 

[desertlady]

hope they didnt damaged the tree !

 

[Smiles Jr.]

lesa - you could try dusting the area around the base of the trees and under the plastic protector with DE (diatomacious earth). I use DE for many things around my little farm and it does a very good job of keeping insects at bay. I use food grade DE on all of my veggies in the garden, in the coop and on the chickens, in the goat barn, and all the way around the house. But I do try to keep it away from my bees.

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

i thought i remember reading a while ago here on TEG that many years back people used to take their remaining white paint and paint the base of tree trunks to keep the bugs from trying to burrow into them. it could have been a deterrent because of all the chemicals that used to be in the paint that we no longer use. but it has me wondering if it is still a useful way to keep bugs from damaging a tree while it is still young. i would also think it would be easier to spot any bad bugs or damaged areas on the tree quicker.

 

[so lucky]

I'm one of those old folks who remember seeing white trunks on all the trees. It was "white wash," a mixture of air-slaked lime and chalk, per wikipedia. I thought it was to keep borers out, but wiki says it was to prevent sunscald on young tree trunks. Doesn't make sense to have put it on mature trees for that reason, but it seemed to be a fashion statement back in the 50's. It was also used as a cheap form of paint--ala Tom Sawyer's fence.

 

[Collector]

Some places still recommend painting the trunk to deter sunscald. waterbased interior paint 50/50 with water and paint the trunk. Havnt done it, but am thinking of it for the apple trees that we planted a couple weeks ago.

 

[Detlor Poultry]

 

[Collector]

Det, what are you doing under that chair?

 

[digitS']

. . . Beginning to remember why I had never planted fruit trees....

I know what you mean, Lesa.

There was a fruit orchard in my dreams (& in my garden) about 40 years ago. Within just a few years of planting them - I moved. Sooooo, I moved my fruit trees to Dad's backyard. There's one left.

Of course, Dad doesn't live there anymore . . . After 40+ years, he moved also. But, 5 or 6 of the original trees were nearly gone by then. One was an apple that never produced fruit . . ! After it got so big that it was shading everything around it - Dad cut it down.

A peach got some kind of fire blight. It promptly died and the replacement peach went the same way - quickly. A plum had a little fire bight and then got some kind of bark problem (see below). It had done real well up until that point and altho' he lost the tree, Dad replaced it with another (French Prune). That one is a fine, healthy tree and has a heavy crop of fruit every year! It is, however, a magnet for bugs that have to be sprayed with insecticidal soap.

Meanwhile, not having paid proper attention to what was happening in Dad's backyard, I got a peach tree for here at home. A couple years ago, that young tree had a tremendous crop of white peaches! Delicious! Maybe from the stress of producing so much fruit, it got fire blight. I did what I'd done before and removed all the affected leaves. Don't know that it helped a bit. The blisters in the bark I'd thought was a different problem -- I've learned otherwise!! Fire blight, too! The horticulturalists say that IF this bacterial disease has invaded the roots - the tree will likely die!

The peach tree is looking fairly good so far this year. I will hate to see it fail but I guess that I take a long time to learn lessons . . . The original fruit tree still in Dad's old backyard is a Northern Spy apple. Mom & Dad never found much value in the fruit from that tree but it had a good limb to hang their birdfeeder . . . .

Steve

 

[so lucky]

Let's see...is it fire blight that is hosted and spread by cedar trees? I don't know how anybody manages to grow peaches, with the rapid spread of wild cedars we have had.