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 […]
Watching Bud Stages
It’s the time of year that fruit trees are coming out of dormancy and buds are swelling. Using the swelling of bud to time preventative sprays is the most accurate way to control diseases on your fruit trees. By watching the buds on your fruit trees, you can time fungicide and bactericide sprays so they […]
Apple Maggot Update
We’ve had several customers call after noticing that their apples (or pears) have apple maggot in them this year. The most asked question is, “What can I do now to prevent this from happening next year?” We’ve posted in the past how to time sprays for apple maggot. Unfortunately, if you’re using organic controls, it only […]
European Pear Harvesting
We’ve posted before about timing harvest of pears and apples, how to tell when they are ripe, when to pick, and how to store. As summer ends and fall begins, we are ramping up the harvest of pears and apples at Cloud Mountain. Every year, we are asked how to tell if pears are ready […]
How We Graft Japanese Maples
In our last blog post, we talked about Japanese maple propagation in general and why we graft, and today we will lay out the steps that we use in our grafting program. With a few basic tools, a little bit of plant material, and a good bit of patience, you can build a Japanese maple […]