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.

 

[LBrandt]

I doubt that it's sparrows but anything is possible. Are the plants gone or just chewed off and laying there ? I'd set a camera out and see if you can catch them in action. We used to have cut worms, they would cut tomato plants but I haven't saw one in years .

Had a Robin pull my young sweet corn out by the roots and take the seed off the end and he took a lot. It did not end well for him and it was treated seed he was taking back to the little ones. LB

 

[Davey Crockett]

Had a Robin pull my young sweet corn out by the roots and take the seed off the end and he took a lot. It did not end well for him and it was treated seed he was taking back to the little ones. LB

Funny how territory is different , we have an overload of Robins and I've never noticed one in the garden, they are always hopping around in the lawn. Wife was giving me a haircut last week so I'm setting there watching this robin on the wire about 100 feet away and a sparrow hawk snatched it from behind. It was a heavy load he made it a couple hundred feet pumping for all he was worth, it looked like he had a hard landing in the trees. First time Iv'e ever saw him catch anything. When 2 or 3 birds hit our window by the bird feeder we know he made a pass.

@ Lycan

Boy , you put time and thought into it, Your doing it right. Iv'e never checked my garden soil, Iv'e hauled old manure over the years and called it good. What do you think about Miracle grow ? Since I started drip taping Iv'e been injecting and sometimes top dressing right before a rain. I seem to have good results but I don't have anything to compare it to , other than when I experiment with dosage.

 

[Lycanthrope]

This is what I use for starting plants, then after they are going well, I mix it 50/50 with straight urea and thats what I use for potted plants and giving boost to in ground plants a well. Ive never used an injector but Ive been thinking about trying it for my orchard area, would be a lot easier than putting down ferts with a spreader I suppose, once I have the system figured out. I picked up 1000lbs of Urea from the farm fertilizer place in New Salem a couple days ago, they sell it for $450/ton right now, a lot cheaper than buying 50lb bags at nearly $1/lb. Miracle grow probably isnt bad but I think jacks has a better micronutrient profile than MG typically. If you dont wanna mix 2 different fertilizers Id probably just use the 20/20/20 which the megastore sells also for a bit cheaper.

https://www.greenhousemegastore.com...15-plant-starter?_pos=10&_sid=edba36407&_ss=r

 

[LBrandt]

Oh happy day. Just noticed about 100 bee hives a half mile from my place. Should have lots of bee's this year.

 

[Retired-Guy]

We have an old ornamental bird house that sits about 2' off the ground. Yesterday while trimming shrubs I heard a buzzing sound and come to find out that the birdhouse has a yellowjacket nest inside. I put a trash can over it hoping the sun would cook them but since it is in a rock garden, the trash can doesn't seal at the bottom and it took them a fraction of a second to figure that out. I guess I will have to dress in protective gear and douse the house with a diatomaceous earth slurry that has worked in the past. Wish they were pollinators but all they do is destroy apples and other fruit. I did get stung once yesterday when I was dinking with them. My own fault for sure.