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If you want to talk about something that doesn't fit into a particular orchard category, then this is the place! Within the bounds of propriety, of course, given our abiding interest with the fruits of nature and the benefits of kindness, anything reasonable goes. What's on your mind?
Re: Virgina Hewe's crabapple - 11 months ago
Hey Craig, Wickson and Hewes both great choices. We also have Everest and what a pain to pick! The apples don't come off without also taking off next year's buds. The one year I harvested them, it was with scissors and a tarp underneath. It's almost March and our Everest still has spent apples hanging (those not eaten yet by the birds). However, for pollination, Everest has a longby Karen Brindle - Cider Apples
Re: Bottom of the seventh, the score is Holistic 2 - Conventional 0 - 11 months ago
James, I enjoy reading your noob adventures and happy to hear of your success!by Karen Brindle - Just Talk
Re: do you care? - 11 months ago
Yep, I care too! I've learned so much from the wealth of wisdom here, and like James said, I've also met multiple like-minded local growers (Hi James!) Life had been busy, that's my main excuse for not visiting more but I would not want to see the forum go away, I'm happy to keep supporting it.by Karen Brindle - Just Talk
Re: Filtering fermented funk - 1 year ago
Hi Prairie, try googling "compost tea filter bag" This is what I use, underneath a kitchen strainer when I'm "harvesting" my tea ferments into a 5 gallon bucket that then can get dumped into my spray tank. My bag has lasted at least 5 years now so even though these are pretty expensive, they are worth it! I'm pretty sure my bag is a 5 gallon size? Hope this helps!by Karen Brindle - Spray Nuance
Re: Neem Pure - Definitive Guide to Mixing - 1 year ago
I also hook a hose up to a sink and run warm water into my sprayer tank, really helps in cool weather and a normally cold water source. I have resorted to using dawn soap with hot tap water to clean out the tank and lines. Not organic but seems to work better than the commercial tank cleaners.by Karen Brindle - Spray Nuance
Re: Overlap of oils with sulfur - 1 year ago
I can't see a consensus in the timing in this discussion except to NOT follow sulfur closely with a neem mix. I need to do a sulfur spray for black rot, early trees are at tight cluster and we have a week or a little more of dry weather. Growth is about to accelerate. I'm thinking do sulfur now, in the evening, and do holistic spray (EM, fish, kelp, neem/karanja) in a week right beforeby Karen Brindle - Spray Nuance
Re: keeping up with the club crowd - 1 year ago
Ok, I will chime in here. Now in the depth of late winter I must buy apples to eat since we have no storage for our own holistic fruit. I find it confusing and disappointing when trying some of these many new varieties - most I find lack flavor and/or crunch that I expect when paying money for them. It's not fun to get home and try these new apples with their fancy names and labels, and findby Karen Brindle - Breeding Flavorful Fruit
Re: To prune or not to prune? - 1 year ago
Hey Ethan, here's my opinion. We planted 1 year old feathered saplings in 2013 on M-111. I pruned every winter, very lightly the first few, and we had crops starting at year 5. Years 6-8 our trees had so much fruit many needed branches tied or braced. I'm now pruning scaffolds back to strengthen the limbs, especially those that got bent down by the weight of the fruit, thinking about 2by Karen Brindle - Orchard Systems
Re: Should I clean up this mess? - 1 year ago
Hi James, while I don't thin, I wonder how hard it could be to wear a picking bag and put thinnings in that rather than on the ground? To lower disease pressure from the critters that like to have part of their life cycle in fruit, we are meticulous with keeping the orchard as clean as we can. We hired local young kids to pick up all the June drops and put into buckets which was fed to our sby Karen Brindle - Bacterial Opportunists
Re: Who is that noob asking dumb questions? - 2 years ago
James, the beauty of this forum is the meeting of and helping other like-minded orchardists! We have shared scion with another expanding local orchard, met here on this forum and we are happy to share with you if you care to make the journey. Sending you a PM as the rest of the community probably don't want those details!by Karen Brindle - Just Talk
Re: Who is that noob asking dumb questions? - 2 years ago
Hi James, welcome to the forum! We already met on another thread but I'm curious, what varieties are you going to top graft/work your trees to? I would suggest that you look into putting some of your acres into cider apples. That's the direction we went when we put our orchard in, the demand just keeps growing here west of the Cascades. We can also help with cider scion if you ever ventby Karen Brindle - Just Talk
Re: Orchard sprayers 101 - 2 years ago
Hi Jeff, it takes 2.5 to 3 tank full for our orchards and that is slowly increasing as the young trees grow and get bigger canopies. The size nozzle makes a huge difference in how much sprays applied and I tend to use a bit bigger size to ensure good coverage. (runoff) Our sprayer handgun came with different nozzle tip inserts so we can change the droplet size/spray amount..by Karen Brindle - Sensible Equipment
Re: Power pruner options - 2 years ago
James, I have not used the pole for our apple trees. But it did work extremely well when clearing our roads of overhanging forest tree branches so they would not scrape our RV. This job did not need a precise cut. Standing in the back of the truck got us additional reach and the pruners were excellent for this job. I cut branches as big as will fit into the open blades.by Karen Brindle - Sensible Equipment
Re: Orchard sprayers 101 - 2 years ago
Hey James, we have a Rears 50 tow behind for about 3 acres of trees (close to 300 semi-standard) I think a 50 might be too small for you, you would have to make a lot of trips to re-fill. When I'm spraying, I just want to get it done, not making a bunch of trips to remix and fill the tank. We tow ours with an RTV, takes 2 people, one driving and one standing in the back/dump bed spraying. 2by Karen Brindle - Sensible Equipment
Re: Power pruner options - 2 years ago
Hi James, I'm still using this pruner! I bought another (Felco) as a back up last year when the Zenport quit working. I sent it in for service, turned out to be the cord had failed. They replaced it at a very reasonable cost and it's been working like a champ ever since. I actually prefer the Felco: a bit lighter weight, slightly smaller more comfortable grip, a little quicker return, aby Karen Brindle - Sensible Equipment
Re: biennial blessings - 2 years ago
I will first speak to the value of Baldwin as a cider apple. It grows quite large and healthy fruit for us here in WA , just south of BC, so a similar climate. It ripens quite late, early November in 2020 and is a very good culinary apple. However, it does not have much tanin or interesting aromatics. I know it is a traditional cider variety but I've been contemplating top grafting to anotby Karen Brindle - Cider Apples
Re: Pastured Poultry - 2 years ago
We have run chickens in one of our orchards a lot. I have used the holistic spray with no problems. However, chickens DIG. They concentrate their craters underneath the trees because that is where the shade and shelter is.by Karen Brindle - Just Talk
Re: Apple tree suddenly dying - 2 years ago
Thank you Michael, I have also contacted the extension ag service locally to see what they think. I've never seen fireblight here, but getting a certain diagnosis will help with management. Our apple growing experience is only 12 years now, still so much to learn. It takes me a long time to prune because I'm looking closely at each tree for anthracnose or other things amiss, I saw nothiby Karen Brindle - Bacterial Opportunists
Apple tree suddenly dying - 2 years ago
I'm hoping some of you can help identify what has suddenly taken hold of this 7th leaf tree in our orchard. I noticed no problems at pruning this winter, (I am always looking hard for anthracnose) nor had I seen anything wrong until doing my holistic spray yesterday. Dying from the top down, blossoms and leaves shriveling up. a canker or wound I can't identify is dramatic. Does not haveby Karen Brindle - Bacterial Opportunists
Re: I'll say goodby to organic certification - 2 years ago
Oh that is wrong on so many levels, organic food prices will be going up, availability reduced, I’m so sorry to hear this.by Karen Brindle - Just Talk
Re: Regalia Bio fungicide - 2 years ago
I used it a few years ago on our peach trees to help with black/brown rot? (that gummy stuff on the limbs and die-back of may twigs and small branches) I did not notice any difference at all, I'm hoping the Quantum might make a difference this year.by Karen Brindle - Just Talk
Re: The blood runs within - 2 years ago
Claude, thanks so much for the explanation, I'll stop scratching my head now when looking for an exact description of the trees we have!by Karen Brindle - Apples
Re: Black Oxford off colored/russet from the holistic sprays? - 2 years ago
HI Leslie, thanks for the response. I really enjoy the flavor and texture of the Black Oxford in spite of the looks, fortunately we can add them to our cider apples we sell as they all get blended anyway. Our trees all have great bloom this year, hoping for a good crop and maybe my trial of Quantum in my sprays will make a difference In appearance.by Karen Brindle - Apples
Re: Adding Quantum to ferment tea brewing? - 2 years ago
Thanks Michael for the response and correcting my lingo, I'm still really pumped about the addition of Quantum to the foliar spray, thanks for doing the research on it and sharing!by Karen Brindle - Arboreal Microbes
Re: Is this Anthracnose? - 2 years ago
Thanks Leslie, no it can be on any side. I cut that whole branch out and the problem did not reoccur on that Boskoop. I'm not seeing it this year. Another mystery that the trees must have solved by themselves?by Karen Brindle - Fungal Pathogens
Re: Dealing with Anthracnose on the Pacific Northwest - 2 years ago
Thank you for posting this topic! Several years ago we received B-118 rootstock that was obviously infected with lesions. Not a great way to start an orchard, we burned them. . Right or wrong, I have been coating the lesions or even suspected ones with pure neem in winter when I prune. My unscientific theory is that the neem will disrupt the spores from spreading. So far, it seems to be stoppingby Karen Brindle - Fungal Pathogens
Adding Quantum to ferment tea brewing? - 2 years ago
Would there be any benefit to this? As I was starting my comfrey ferment this week, I got to wondering if the non-photosynthetic microbes would like to be part of the mix?by Karen Brindle - Arboreal Microbes
Re: Spray tank heat effect on microbes - 2 years ago
Next time I spray I will try to measure the temp. Those parameters are helpful Michael, I will be interested to see what it is. Too bad there is no way to turn off the agitation only when I get down to the lower level on the tank, everything is thoroughly mixed by then!by Karen Brindle - Arboreal Microbes
Re: regional groups - 2 years ago
I have had an extended conversation with someone local to me on a Facebook post that Michael made. I really like connecting with local growers. One that I met virtually here on HON has visited our orchard and we have visited his, and shared scion this winter. The questions that came from the FB post could have been answered by a search of this forum, which I strongly encouraged! But there is greby Karen Brindle - Making It Better
Re: Conventional Ag and Orchards coexisting? - 2 years ago
Jake, we thought we were in a totally clean area. However, we are surrounded by commercial timber land and they occasionally spray from helicopters! Not something we even remotely considered when purchasing our land. They did log a huge area next to us but they left about a 1/4 mile buffer of trees standing next to our property. Enough to block drift? I guess the only way to know for sure wouldby Karen Brindle - Just Talk