November Orchard Care

As of today, our orchard trees, apart from the apples, are well on their way to dormancy. About 50% of the leaves are off the trees and around 50% of those remaining are yellow and ready to fall.

I think it has been quite warm and not very wet this year but full dormancy is coming soon.

I have been waiting for the trees to be bare before spraying with a brown rot fungicide. There are a number that are effective, Pristine, for example but the last two years we have sprayed with Bravo Weatherstik and dormant oil. The dormant oil is really for scale, not fungus.

However, because I have to have surgery in another 10 days and I don’t really want to have to leave spraying until after Christmas I will spray the trees sometime during the next 10 days. The key is that it mustn’t be freezing when spraying or freeze for a couple of hours after spraying. It is going to be cold in the evenings but if I spray in the morning the pesticides will have the rest of the day to take hold and have an impact.

I did mow the orchard a few weeks ago. Once the trees are fully dormant I will be spraying the orchard floor with some broad leaf weed control, both pre- and post- emergent. 2-4 D Amine is very effective, and there are various formulations but I am looking into others. I will also spray under the tree rows with a post-emergent non-selective herbicide to kill anything growing under the trees. This will have to be repeated in the spring.

Most likely I will spray with a copper fungicide in January, right before pruning. I want to start an early copper spray on the apple trees to suppress fire blight before it starts and gets a hold on the trees.

I may also plant another 10 apple trees, a variety that ripens in July or early August, and do a little more like the WA intensive apple growing. Deer killed 3 of the apple trees this year so I need to replace them anyway.