Winter Scouting Fruit Trees
Scouting, or looking for pest and disease problems on plants, is an important part of good orchard management. Winter is a good time to look at your fruit trees without their leafy clothing hiding problems. In our rainy climate, all manner of fungal and bacterial infections can damage fruit trees, mainly by forming galls or […]
Winter Garden Joy
We have been blessed in Whatcom County this fall and early winter with more sunshine and less rain than normal. But even in the dreariest November and Decembers, you can find hummingbirds warring over winter blooming plants. Plants that bloom in the fall and winter do more than make the overwintering Anna’s Hummingbirds happy, though. […]
Permaculture Plants
“Permaculture is the conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally productive ecosystems, which have the diversity, stability and resilience of natural ecosystems” -Bill Mollison The permaculture concept has gained quite a bit of popularity in recent years. From Seattle’s Beacon Hill Food Forest to The Bullock Brothers Homestead on Orcas Island, this movement has had a […]
Fruit Fly Maggots in Berries
It’s summer fruit time, with strawberries at their peak, cherries just starting to ripen, currants and gooseberries turning color and raspberries on the horizon. I’ve had a couple of calls lately about worms in various berries last summer and how to prevent them this summer. The worms are most likely the larvae of Spotted Wing […]
Mildew Explosion!
The past couple of weeks, people are really starting to see powdery mildew raise its ugly head. Powdery mildew is caused by fungus in the genus Podosphaera. Powdery mildew spores overwinter in the leaf buds of plants, and germinate just as the new shoots are emerging. At that stage, sulfur or lime sulfur sprays can […]
Apple and Pear Scab
Early April has been both cool and rainy. With this kind of weather, we have our thoughts on fungal disease control in the orchards. One of the greatest challenges to growing apples and pears in our climate is scab, a fungal disease (Venturia inaequalis on apples, Venturia pirina on pears). Preventing this disease is key […]