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Do we dare open up this Pandora's Box of orcharding technique? You betcha!
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Results 1 — 30 of 57Re: Holistic Approach to Fireblight - 2 years ago
Thanks for that link.by Zea Sonnabend - Bacterial Opportunists
Re: Wash & Pack equipment - 2 years ago
I recommend TEW equipment. They make small scale washers and sorters. We got ours used but they have a full line of parts and good service. They have been in business for decades.by Zea Sonnabend - Sensible Equipment
Re: Timing regarding spraying for scab - 2 years ago
It is too late to spray now and have it do any good. After the leaves drop, try to spread limestone on ground before winter. Then a dormant oil spray will help kill spores on trunks.by Zea Sonnabend - Fungal Pathogens
Re: Holistic Approach to Fireblight - 2 years ago
I am more interested in Michael's older reference to lactic acid for bio control. However the article cited costs $39.95! Not in my budget. We are having a very bad FB year out west this year. Any glimmer of bio control is worth looking into.by Zea Sonnabend - Bacterial Opportunists
Re: Organic Certifying Agencies - 2 years ago
I have a certified organic orchard and I know a lot about this subject since I work part time as an organic inspector. Your choice depends somewhat on what you are planning to do with your fruit. For instance if you are exporting or selling to a processor you want a certifier with good recognition in other countries. If you are staying local, I would look for a certifier close to you. I think QCSby Zea Sonnabend - Just Talk
Re: Cleaning - 2 years ago
Nutra sol is what is usually recommended for cleaning residues in sprayers. It should work on the outside of the equipment too. We coat our tractor and sprayer with horticultural oil before using lime sulfur. Then it washes off better.by Zea Sonnabend - Spray Nuance
Re: Timing regarding spraying for scab - 2 years ago
The sulfur should have a residual effect of 7 days. If there is no rain you can certainly extend the time between sprays, especially if you have dry conditions like wind or heat and the fog burns off in the afternoons. We only did 2 sulfur sprays this year while some years we do more. We do reliably use limestone in the fall to break down fallen leaves as a way to stay ahead of it.by Zea Sonnabend - Fungal Pathogens
Re: Apple varities on a new farm - 2 years ago
Our situation and terroir is so different that I don't dare comment about taste or pests or performance, but I strongly second what Michael suggests above of making a marketing flow chart or graph so you make sure your harvest quantities are spread relatively evenly throughout the season and in each week you have a varied selection of flavors and colors and uses as well as some modern and soby Zea Sonnabend - Apples
Re: TerraNeem - 3 years ago
Thanks Michael! I knew there would be a backstory.by Zea Sonnabend - Spray Nuance
Wood ashes - 3 years ago
Someone gave me a rather large amount of wood ashes from burning their prunings. I want to use them since they are high in minerals but am not sure of the best way to go about it. I don't want to put them in the compost pile because it will cause nitrogen volatilizations. Should I worry about burning young trees if I top dress?by Zea Sonnabend - Tree Fruit Nutrition
TerraNeem - 3 years ago
Have any of you heard of or use a new product called TerraNeem EC? It is a cold pressed whole neem formulation that comes already blended with adjuvants so it doesn't need heating or additives to get it onto the plants. It is OMRI listed but not yet registered in California. The company is called Terramera and the website is Terramera.com. The website is not very useful. If someone tries it,by Zea Sonnabend - Spray Nuance
Re: Vf variety failures? - 3 years ago
I don't know much about blossom blast except it is apparently in the soil all the time and there is nothing you can do once you get it. Our symptoms didn't show up at bloom, but in late spring when the trees were all green and healthy and the suddenly in a matter of two or three days they just died, with the leaves turning brown but not falling off. It has struck about 2 to 4 trees eachby Zea Sonnabend - Fungal Pathogens
Re: 2017 scab review - 3 years ago
Mike, What is the name of the cobalt product you used and is it approved for organic? We want to try it if so.by Zea Sonnabend - Fungal Pathogens
Re: Homemade apple washer -- help needed - 3 years ago
We have an old one from TEW. We are just about to pack it away for winter but I can try and take a few photos. Not of the gears though because they are inside a housing and I don't know how to get in there. The brushes are inside the machine without much light in there but I can try. They are lateral and my impression is the bristles touch each other as they turn. It works really well andby Zea Sonnabend - Sensible Equipment
Re: Favorite picking bucket - 3 years ago
We use the professional version of the picking bag from Lee above. It is available from Peaceful Valley Farm Supply and other orchard suppliers in Washington state. It is deeper, has a semi-rigid room to hold it open, and has metal clips instead of rope to open the bottom to let the apples out. It comes in two sizes and lasts a long time.by Zea Sonnabend - Sensible Equipment
Re: M-111 expected teenage yield - 3 years ago
I think you are a bit too optimistic with next year's projections. Our fifth leaf trees on 111 mostly had less than 1/2 bushel; maybe an average of 10 lbs. per tree. It can expand rapidly after that though, so 2019 and beyond might be closer.by Zea Sonnabend - Healthy Harvest
Re: The Merits of Drops ? - 3 years ago
Thank you very much David, for looking into the safety of drops which are picked up promptly. On Sunday night we had a rare weather phenomenon called a microburst where we had strong winds in the middle of the night for about 15 minutes. The next morning there was a carpet of apples on the ground, mostly under Jonagolds which we had started picking, and Newtown Pippin which is about a week awaby Zea Sonnabend - Healthy Harvest
Re: 2017 scab review - 3 years ago
Do you think Regalia could be meshed with a sulfur based program to help counteract the effects of sulfur on the biome? I never heard about Regalia against scab, but I am interested to learn more. Also, we had horrible scab our first season (2012), but practically eliminated it the following year by spreading limestone in the fall ahead of leaf drop (right after would work too). The lime madeby Zea Sonnabend - Fungal Pathogens
Re: Vf variety failures? - 3 years ago
Hi Brian, We have many varieties of scab resistant apples. I know Florina (Querina) is one with non Vf type. Our two trees of it both died last year though, from blossom blast (pseudomonas). We also weren't thrilled with the flavor. I thought I read that Crimson Topaz is also a non Vf, but I cannot verify that. It is one of our favorites for taste and fruit quality. It does not get scab,by Zea Sonnabend - Fungal Pathogens
Re: Late season return bloom strategies for apples - 3 years ago
We have been using a nutritional approach to correcting alternate bearing in our orchard and to build up our flower buds to not be as strongly affected by not enough chilling. We are using primarily products from Bioflora including Dyna-Mega, which is a naturally extracted humid acid and fish, Seaweed Creme, and a fulvic acid with trace minerals. It has worked pretty well for the alternate beaby Zea Sonnabend - Organic Thinning
Re: Pruning figs - 3 years ago
Figs don't need much pruning once the framework is established and if you are mainly looking for main crop and not brebas (the early crop from overwintering buds that some varieties produce). We pruned ours to 3 or 4 main trunks and the just prune to open up the center for ease of picking and keep height manageable. You then also need to prune off root suckers each year. If you are trying toby Zea Sonnabend - Figs
Re: Summer Pruning - 3 years ago
We started pruning the water sprouts this week. I don't know about the calcium issue, but we see it as essential to let light into the canopy so the fruit ripens and colors well, and also to channel the tree's energy into fruit rather than rank vegetative growth. We do some extra fruit thinning in the process. We focus this on red varieties like red delicious and Fuji, rather than onesby Zea Sonnabend - Pruning
Re: Grandevo - 3 years ago
I don't have personal experience with Grandevo, but I was just last week speaking with another local organic apple grower and he said he had recently used it. I thought he said he was trying to control aphids with it because we are having a bad aphid year, but we were also talking about leaf rollers so it might have been for that. He was unimpressed with it. I have never heard of it for Sby Zea Sonnabend - Spray Nuance
Re: Peach thinning and tree physiology - 3 years ago
I think about this subject too, and was looking at some peaches that I thinned over a month ago now. I discovered small ones that I hadn't really noticed when I first thinned, and they made the branches seem over-crowded now. So I did more thinning today. Also even though I left what seemed like good spacing on some branches, there were so many fruit on a relatively slender branch that the wby Zea Sonnabend - Organic Thinning
Spring/summer Pruning for Pears - 3 years ago
I have about 20 pear trees that didn't get fully pruned in the dormant season that are in 6th leaf: Warren, Magness, and Comice. Terence says I should go ahead and prune them now with impunity, but I am a bit reluctant, especially to make any heading cuts because of disease pressure. So far we have no fire blight this year (knock on pear woodby Zea Sonnabend - Pruning
Re: Alternate bearing - 3 years ago
Our Galas are our most regular cropping variety, along with Granny Smith. We have to thin them very aggressively to get any size on them and that probably helps. Partly what I was getting at in starting this thread is that building the nutrition for the future buds in the summer and fall by foliar sprays seems to be equally if not more important than all the thinning and pruning. It is so veryby Zea Sonnabend - Organic Thinning
Alternate bearing - 3 years ago
We have been trying to correct the alternate bearing tendency that some varieties are prone to when they over crop, aren't pruned enough, or are neglected. We have been doing this by vigorous pruning, heavy thinning in the "on" year, and foliar sprays with humid and folic acids with seaweed and fish to try to build strength for next year's buds during the summer. I am happyby Zea Sonnabend - Organic Thinning
Re: pruning debris disposal - 4 years ago
Hi Emily, Good to see you here. We also remove big pieces, put smaller ones in the aisles, and then run our Rears brand flail mowers over them which does a good job on the brush.by Zea Sonnabend - Understory Management
Re: Spreading lime on apple leaves in fall for scab prevention - 4 years ago
You need agricultural limestone, which is calcium carbonate. Dolomitic limestone might be okay too, if your soil is deficient in magnesium.by Zea Sonnabend - Fungal Pathogens
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