Calaveras County Master Gardeners

Gardening Tips for May

• Set out traps for earwigs, slugs, and whitefly.
• Thin pit fruits at or before pit hardening.
• Thin apples when ½” diameter.
• Mow grass or cultivate soil around orchard to discourage thrips and plant bugs.
• Mulch around plants to control weeds and conserve moisture. Be sure to leave a small circle of bare soil around the base of each plant.
• Deep water trees and shrubs. Build water basins, but do not allow water to stand against the trunks.
• Prepare dahlia bed with rich soil.
• For continued bloom, cut off spent flowers.
• Hang strips of foil or CD’s in fruit trees to help deter birds.
• As spring=flowering shrubs finish blooming, prune to shape, removing old and dead wood.
• Trim hedges; lightly trim azaleas, fuchsias, bushier plants.
• Thoroughly clean debris from ponds, fountains and bird baths.
• Check dates of Master Gardener classes.

Get more of this month's tips ....

Orchard Renovation Project

Master Gardener June Wilcox is spearheading a project to renovate the orchard at the San Andreas Demo Garden. This project began in January 2013. The following steps were recommended by the UC Davis Agricultural Extension  They specifically address the bacterial canker that has affected many stone fruit trees as well as the general health of all the fruit trees.

 X   Control size for easier care in maintaining and picking fruit

X   Increase strength – develop strong limb structure

X_ Distribute sunlight evenly throughout tree

X  Regulate fruit bearing – removes excess fruitwood

X   Renew fruitwood – to continue strong buds and flowers

X   Remove undesirable wood- dead, broken, and crossing branches

Orchard Time Line

01/23/13 pruned all trees and removed two dead trees affect by canker disease

02/05/13 planted three new "e z pick" fruit trees

02/21/13 organic oil spray to control peach leaf curl and canker on established trees as per IPM

03/05/13 planting another fruit tree

03/29/13 watered new trees

04/29/13 mulched all trees; cut off affected branches on pears that have fire blight

05/06/13 sprinklers installed and weekly watering began

05/15/13 weeding began

05/16/13 began removing the tire mulch and under cloth to check what the ground underneath.  Hard as a rock.  All the area needs to be removed.

Future projects

• Remove two trees and replace with resistant trees
• Remove existing rubber mulch to propagating area and install organic mulch
• Try grafting on already existing root stock
• Monitor watering and pruning
• Pick fruit!
• Continue to monitor diseases and work to reduce as much as possible

 What did not work?  We should have applied another round of oil spray.

The following information comes from the Fair Oaks MG website.  UC Davis does experiments in their garden:

The two liquid copper products have fairly similar efficacy—they improved control and perhaps sufficiently, but still not great. The control achieved, although resulting in some unsightly damage, is probably enough to allow the tree to produce good shoot growth with enough healthy leaves to nourish the rapidly growing young fruit. Agribon likely allowed some rain to penetrate to the branches. It may be best held up with a post in the middle to allow rain to run off down the sloped sides rather than having a flat surface on top, but it must be fastened securely because of strong winds. Agribon plus Liqui-Cop worked quite well, probably because the fairly good control with Liqui-Cop was enhanced by drier conditions. The combination of lime sulfur (in late fall) followed by Microcop (in late winter) was highly effective, as expected. Normally only one of these products was used for both fall and winter applications, but insufficient product was available for both. Maxicrop (kelp), even sprayed eight times, provided no control at all.