Preparing Home Fruit Plantings for Spring

John StrangDepartment of Horticulture

Ordering Fruit Plants(It’s getting a little late)

• Recommend disease resistant varieties for home growers

• Apples– Fire blight, – Scab– Cedar apple rust– Powdery mildew

• Pears– Fire blight

• Peaches– Bacterial canker – Hardier cv.

• Grapes– Black rot– Downy & Powdery mildew– Anthracnose– Botrytis– Phomopsis

• Blackberries & Black raspberries– Orange rust– Anthracnose

• Blueberries– Phytophthora

• Strawberries– Red stele– Leaf diseases

Assess Tree Damage

Rabbit

Vole

Collection of Scion Wood

• Collect when wood is completely dormant, Feb. -Mar.

• Previous seasons growth

• Disease free wood• Bundle up wood and

label• Wrap in moist towel,

sawdust etc. and place in a plastic bag

• Store in refrigerator

Bridge Graft

Inarching

Cleft Graft

Prune All Fruit Plants

Types of Cuts

Pruning Fruit Trees• Remove dead wood• Put in branch spreaders

(apples & pears)• Remove narrow angled or

weak scaffold limbs• Remove a few larger limbs

if needed back to another outwardly growing limb

• Thin out branches and shoots leaving plenty of flower buds – 20% max.

• Know the growth characteristics and where the flower buds are.

Pruning Videos

• Fruit Tree Pruning– http://video.ca.uky.edu/videos/video/491/

• Pruning Apple Trees to a Central Leader– http://video.ca.uky.edu/videos/video/492/

• Grapevine Pruning Demonstration• Blackberry Pruning Demonstration• Blueberry Pruning Demonstration – http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL09F15

FE61241AC38&feature=plcp

Extension Pruning Publications

• Training and Culture of Dwarf Apples Using the Vertical Axis System (HortFact-3501)– http://www.uky.edu/Ag/Horticulture/appletraining.p

df

• Kentucky Backyard Apple Integrated Pest Management (IPM-9)– http://www.uky.edu/Ag/IPM/manuals/ipm9hmap.pdf

Grower Questions

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker injury on apple

Mushrooms – trees life is limited

Burr knot or adventitious roots on apple

Fire Blight on Apples & Pears• Prune out as much as

possible• Prune out slightly before

canker• Not transferred on

pruners while dormant

Remove Black Knot on Plums

Avoid Leaving Branch Stubs

Removal of Larger Limbs

Remove Narrow Branch Angles

Strong Weak

Branch Spreading

• Opens tree up for sunlight and spray penetration

• Reduces shoot and limb vigor

• Encourages flowering

Excessive

Not enough

Apple Tree Training Central Leader System Second Growing Season

Photos courtesy: Ohio State University

Central Leader Apple Tree

Multiple Leader or Modified Central Leader

Apple

Pear

Plum

Cherry

VasePeach & Some Plums

Peach tree after 2 years growthbefore & after pruning

Photo courtesy: Ohio State University

Peach Pruning

Grape – High Cordon

1. Rough prune to 3 – bud spurs2. Prune to 4-5 buds/ft cordon on each

side of high wire cordon

Before After

Must have at least 1 lb of prunings to do this!

Dormant Oil Spray• Tree Fruit• When

temperatures are 45°F or higher for 2 days

San Jose Scale

Complete thorough coverage

Dormant Oil Spray

Thorough complete coverage

Rosy apple aphid

Two spot and European red mites

Fixed Copper SprayApples & Pears for Fire Blight

• Combine in dormant oil spray up to ¼ “ green stage

• Kills fire blight bacteria on surface of trees

* *

Fruit Insect & Disease Predictive Models

http://weather.uky.edu/plant_disease.html

Fire Blight Model

Fire Blight Model - 4/10/12

Fire Blight Model 4/15/12

Spray Streptomycin

Protected for 4 days

Winter Injury

• All fruit crops still have the potential for a full crop

• Peaches have some injury–Min. temp. Feb. 1

• UKREC 12.3 °F– 77% survival

Contender

• Lexington 6.6 °F– 65% survival Coral Star

Fruit Crop Fertilization

• Fertilize with N based on plant growth– May not be needed

on very fertile sites• Once the pre plant

fertilizer is applied usually only annual applications of N are needed.

Tree Fruit Fertilization Fruit

Desired New Terminal Growth (mature trees)*

Rate (Applied in Feb.)

Apples 12-15” ¼ lb ammonium nitrate/yr of age

Peaches & Plums

14-20” 1/6 lb ammonium nitrate/yr of age

Tart Cherries 8” 1/6 lb ammonium nitrate/yr of age

Pears Less than 12” 1/8 lb ammonium nitrate/yr of age

*1-3 year-old trees may double this amount of growth May substitute SS Superkicker 33% N fertilizer for ammonium nitrate (Ammonium sulfate + Urea)

(½ lb granular fertilizer is equal to approximately 1 cup)

Small Fruit Fertilization

FruitDesiredGrowth Rate

Strawberries Dark green, avoid leggy growth

5 lb 10-10-10/100’ row, L. Jun. after renovation

Blackberries & Raspberries

Dark green .75-1.5 lb ammonium nitrate/ 100 ft. row, Feb.

Grapes Dark brown, 3/8” diam. current seasons canes

0.2 lb 33-0-0/vine, Apr 10.2 lb 33-0-0/vine, Fruit set

Check for Borers

• Peach & Plum– Peachtree borers

• Apple– Dogwood borers

Tree Planting• Soil test and

adjust P, K, Mg & pH

• Soil not too wet• Large hole• Soak roots

overnight• Do not put

fertilizer in the hole!

• Put top soil back in bottom of hole

Tree Planting

• Cut off broken roots• Set tree with graft union 2-

4 inches above soil line• Spread roots out well• Place top soil in around

roots…Do not bring in good soil to fill hole

• Firm soil around tree• May make an above

ground basin – don’t leave over winter

• Water in well to settle soil around roots immediately after planting

Planting• Prune fruit crops

in the spring, not fall

• Rodent guard• Gravel to reduce

wallowing• Weed control

Planted on raised ridge with rodent guards

Figure courtesy: T. Roper & G. Frank, Univ. WI

Weed Control

• Increases tree growth & fruit size

• Mulching• Glyphosate– Keep off of tree– Peaches particularly

sensitive– Use generics

• Weed eater

Fruit Thinning

• Apple & Pear– Thin early– Larger fruit higher sugar content– Slightly lower yield–~ every 6-7”– Sevin at insecticide rate from bloom to

30 days after bloom

Bagging Apples

• Manage early season diseases and insects

• Thin fruit to one/cluster

• Apply bags at .5-.75” fruit diam. – Japanese bags– 3-lb paper bags, 6” in

length, with 1.5” slit cut at opening

• Bags must cover fruit and be tied shut over branch

Bagging Apples

• Improves fruit finish• Pesticide sprays not

needed after bagging• Controls

– Codling moth – Plum curculio – San Jose scale – Rosy apple aphid– Sooty blotch & flyspeck – Apple scab– Cork spot

http://video.ca.uky.edu/search/?q=bagging+apples&x=8&y=4

http://www.ca.uky.edu/entomology/entfacts/ef218.asp

Grapes• Rough prune when dormant

• Finish prune at 4” new growth– Delays growth – Frost protection

• Anthracnose – Dormant period on

susceptible varieties– Sulforix

• Flea beetle– Bud break if found– Sevin

• Black rot – 4” new growth

• Mancozeb, Captan or Fixed copper

– 10” new growth• Mancozeb, Captan or Fixed

copper + myclolbutanil

Bagging when grapes are pea size

Blackberries & Raspberries

• Prune out dead canes

• Remove Rednecked cane borer

• Look for Raspberry crown borer at cane bases - Blackberries

• Spray with liquid-lime sulfur or Sulforix at ½ inch new growth

Rednecked cane borer

Raspberry crown borer

Blueberries

• Mulch with sawdust or wood chips

• Leafroller & Plum curculio– Petal fall–Malathion or

Permethrin

Strawberries

• Remove straw mulch when new growth becomes a little yellow

• Cover with straw or cloth when freeze predicted

• Botrytis fruit rot– Bloom– Captan weekly

Brown Marmorated Stink Bug

• 17 counties– Boyd, Lewis, Greenup,

Carter, Rowan, Lawrence– Pike, Floyd, Magoffin,

Johnson– Letcher, Bell, Whitley– Jefferson, Henry, Oldham– Fayette

• Feeds on a very wide range of fruit vegetable & ornamental crops

• Takes 2-3 years to become a production problem

• Overwinters in houses• Difficult to control

– Malathion

Photo courtesy: Bugwood UGA

Spotted Wing Drosophila (SWD)Drosophila suzukii

• Found all across IL this summer

• Captured in KY traps in late summer– Bowling Green – Owensboro

• Female can puncture fruit and lay eggs– Serious problem in

soft fruit particularly later in season

Photo courtesy Martin Hauser, UC IPM

Photo courtesy G. ArakelianLos Angelis county Ag. Commissioner

Photo courtesy Patty Lucas

Spotted winged Drosophila

• Attack as fruits turn color– Raspberry– Blackberry– Blueberry– Cherry– Strawberry– Grape– Peach– Plum– Tomato (GH, Heirloom)

• Control with Entrust on some crops

Meetings

• Specifics - Fruit Facts Newsletter– Fruit Tree Grafting– Fruit Tree Pruning– Blueberry Production– Fruit Grower Orchard Tour

• Apr. 11, Shelbyville

– Small Fruit Production & IPM Short Course• Apr. 24, Ashland • Agent Training & Pesticide CEU credit

– KY Nut Growers Assoc. Meeting • Apr. 27, Elizabethtown