Garden!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[tikkalover]

Trees love sulfur.

Go to your local agronomy with a 5-gallon bucket and get some ammonium sulfate 21-0-0-24. (will be cheaper there than any garden center)

Sprinkle some around your trees before watering.

 

[guywhofishes]

Thanks guys, I have all sorts of other fruit/berry trees that produce oodles without really any work, but this new little fella is growing, just not producing. I will prune the shit outa her this fall.

Make up your mind, or your apples will be gender-confused.

 

[guywhofishes]

Honey crisps are a PITA. I abused mine for 2-3 yrs and got no blossoms.

Gave up.

A deer thrashed its trunk in fall of 2022 and sure enough 2023 saw lots of fruit.

This year back to no flowers.

I think it's just about Stihl time.

 

[Jiffy]

They make great smoking wood!!!

Not zig zag smoking either....thought I'd clarify.

 

[Retired-Guy]

My honey crisp did well for years until limbs started gradually dying. It met Mr. Chainsaw last fall. Now I have a small sheet of plywood on top and use it to feed birds and critters. Sure miss those delicious apples but moving in the fall so no sense in planting another.

 

[BDub]

The ‘Honeycrisp’ apple trees here at Carrington have had a good run. They were well-branched trees, so possibly 2-3 years old, when they were planted in spring 2006, and they made it to 2023. We started together and matured together!

For about 5-7 years, there has been black rot in the orchard. It started slowly, staining branches near old cuts. Then it developed into cankers or infections where sun injured some branches in spring freezes. And now it has infected whole trees.

This was copied from a NDSU project. This spring. All of the trees were made into firewood.
I wouldn’t plant another Honeycrisp tree.

 

[Retired-Guy]

I think the black rot was the demise of mine also.

 

[johnr]

We are much drier in the west than up NE, I would guess we don't get black rot to often out here

 

[Retired-Guy]

I'm in Bismarck but I do water so could be the issue.

 

[Lycanthrope]

jim Walla is talking about black rot at the ndsu carrington field day event in July... it's worth going to if you have time.

 

[AR-15]

3 apples on the tree last year, this year it's going to be branch breaking apples, never have saw that many apples on the tree, going to have lots of apple sauce if them dam black birds and the dam robins stay away, been warming up the BB guns, never want to kill them just wound them so they hop over to the park and die.

 

[guywhofishes]

lol, that’s cold

 

[Auggie]

Here is my 2023 soil test before amending

And 2024 after putting down some chems last year and again this spring early....

Last year I just dug samples using a trenching shovel, this year I bought a soil probe that takes samples down about 8 inches, so should be more accurate that way. Took samples from 5 or 6 different spots in my orchard area.

Don't be surprised if your soil needs lime next year with that fertilizer. pH drop of 6.6 to 5.9 is huge in a year. Also, you more than doubled the salinity (E.C.). Salinity greater than 1 could be tough on most garden crops. Did you plant potatoes last year? That's a big decrease in K and spuds use lots and lots of potassium.

 

[Lycanthrope]

Don't be surprised if your soil needs lime next year with that fertilizer. pH drop of 6.6 to 5.9 is huge in a year. Also, you more than doubled the salinity (E.C.). Salinity greater than 1 could be tough on most garden crops. Did you plant potatoes last year? That's a big decrease in K and spuds use lots and lots of potassium.

This is in my orchard where I have mostly fruit bushes planted, juneberry, aronia, haskap etc. My PH tests in that area have varied a bit previously. My sampling method did change however so Im thinking that might be the cause of some of the abnormalities. Previously I was just digging some dirt with a shovel and grabing a handful here and there, where now Im using an actual core sample from multiple areas, so this might be more accurate than the previous results were. Ive tested out there a few times and 6.6 is the highest ive ever gotten. Here is another test I had done a few years ago. Im not sure how accurate PH is TBH, like blood pressure it seems like it can fluctuate some from day to day.

 

[Lycanthrope]

3 apples on the tree last year, this year it's going to be branch breaking apples, never have saw that many apples on the tree, going to have lots of apple sauce if them dam black birds and the dam robins stay away, been warming up the BB guns, never want to kill them just wound them so they hop over to the park and die.

you should thin your apples to 1 per cluster, ideally 1 apple / foot of branch, but a lot of people hesitate to remove that many. That will produce nicer individual apples and help break the cycle of biennial fruit production.