Fight Orchard Pests with Flower Power!

A parasitoid wasp. Most of these wasps are under a quarter-
of-an-inch and none are able to sting humans.

I was talking to a friend a few weeks ago and he told me that he never sprays his apple trees, but he regularly has 25% of his apples worm free. He didn't know why, but I have a pretty good idea what is preventing his apples from being damaged.

My friend lives on his old family farm in Lehi, Ut and it is full of "weeds" that are left unsprayed and usually un-mowed. These feral plants feed all comers including small parasitoidal wasps. These wasps lay eggs on a number of pests, including apple codling moths. When the eggs hatch they start eating the pests.

This is not a perfect system, but it is a sensible way to have better fruit with no added chemicals. And you don't need to live on a farm to make it work! All you need is to plant more flowers.  Not all flowers are created the same and some flowers will do more to attract predators.

Below is a list of some of the more useful plants for attracting parasitiod wasps. They are all readily available in seed or plant form at your local nursery or on line.

Scientific Name	Common Name	Growth Type
Achillea spp.	Yarrow	Perennial
Agastache foeniculum	Anise hyssop	Perennial
Artemisia spp.	Wormwood, sagebrush	Perennial
Aster spp.	Aster	Perennial
Astragalus spp.	Vetch	Perennial
Baptisia spp.	False indigo	Perennial
Bellis perennis	English daisy	Perennial
Borago officinalis	Borage	Annual, reseeding
Caragana spp.	Peashrub	Shrub
Chamaemelum nobile	Roman, English chamomile	Perennial
Chrysogonum virginianum	Green and gold	Perennial
Coreopsis spp.	Tickseed	Perennial
Echinacea purpurea	Purple cone flower	Perennial
Foeniculum vulgare	Fennel	Perennial
Helianthus spp.	Sunflower, Sunchoke	Annual, perennial
Lupinus spp.	Lupine	Annual, perennial
Medicago satvia	Alfalfa	Perennial
Robinia hispida	Rosa acacia	Shrub
Robinia pseudoacacia	Black locust	Tree
Solidago spp.	Goldenrod	Perennial
Trifolium spp.	Sweet clover	Biennial

The best places to plant these plants is as need your orchard area as possible. In the case of the annuals and perennials, planting them under and around the fruit trees is best. If that is not possible, a flower bed near the trees would be the next best thing.

It will take a few years to start attracting wasps, so be patient and take the time to work with nature. Any other flowers, especially perennials, are likely to help, so feel free to add more flowers and flowerbeds to your property. All the good critters will love you for it.

Manana!

Designing Gardens for a Better Future

What I do is hard for most people to understand. The idea of growing food at home seems to have a hard time getting beyond the idea of the back yard raised planter. Much of that problem is caused by the concept that food production must be something that is hidden in the back yard, or put where the neighbors are not going to see it.

Many Americans have gone even further and decided that growing food is the job of professionals far away and that anyone trying to do it themselves is a menace and should be stopped. This is not far fetched if you look at city ordinances and HOA bylaws.

Since I am taking a step or five in the opposite direction of those trying to prohibit gardens, and since that still puts me a few steps away from the average gardener, I can see why there is a gap in understanding. To help clear up this gap here are some of the ideas I work with:

• Food and support of food should be the primary goal of the yard and home landscape.
• Plants do better with different types associated together.
• Planting different food crops in layers prevents waste of energy and plant nutrients.
• Food plants are beautiful.
• Perennial flowers are good for the food garden.
• The right balance of animals in the garden are better than trying to kill all the insects and critters.
• Perennial flowers are good for balancing the critters and insects.
• Fertilizer creation should be done at home whenever possible. 

To achieve these goals, thinking and design have to be stretched further than most people have the experience to do themselves. So, I try to do it for them.

Now that you have my ideas, what do you think your landscape should provide you?

Drought Loving Flowers

Roses are often thought as being wimpy,
but I find them on many foreclosures. The
white ones with pink blush seem to be
common survivors.

When you live in semi-arid (read that as what most people call a desert) place it makes sense to use plants that don't need a lot of water. I have taken classes and read books on the subject, but the best information I have found on the drought resistant plants is from foreclosed homes.

Foreclosed homes usually don't have sprinkler systems running, so anything surviving there is bound to be tough and adapted to the area. Sometimes a plant will get help from a neighbor overwatering or runoff from the roof. But that's ok, when it is dry you take all the help you can get!

Here are some of the tough plants I have found, tell me what you think:

Apricots are the most drought hardy of the common fruit
trees. This one has gone at least two and a half years
without human irrigation.

Hollyhocks reseed freely and I find scraggly survivors every-
where. This one is flowering better than most seedlings,
likely because of the soil storing extra water from the
downspout. 

Lavender thrives on the dry, even after a
couple of years.

Fruit Pruning Class in Provo

All photos courtesy of Troy Nuttall.

The class was a great success! I hope you join us for the next one.

Utah Sustainable Gardening and Elizabeth Ellsworth Stika are pleased to present a fruit tree pruning workshop in Provo on March 9th 2013.

Subjects covered will be:

• Where and how to make a good cut.
• How to shape a fruit tree.
• What to do to make you fruit trees more productive.

Class will be held at 12:00 on Saturday March 9th. At 365 N. 900 W. Provo, Ut. The hostess has generously offered to pay for the workshop. If you are able, please bring $20.00 to help defray the cost of the workshop. A light lunch will be provided.

Please RSVP at: 
https://www.facebook.com/events/349012245216856/
or
utahsustainablegardening@gmail.com

Winter Sucker Removal

Photos courtesy of Troy Nuttal.

Winter is a great time to take care of those tree chores that don't get done in the summer. A perfect example of this is clearing out fruit tree suckers. Suckers are shoots that come out from the roots of the tree. The best time to take out suckers is as they appear in the summer. Just rip them off away from the tree at an angle and they will often come right out.


That is, they will if you get them while they are still young. If they have time to age and harden off they must be cut out. Once you start cutting, it gets harder and harder to just pull them off.

As a gardening tradesman, I often don't get to fix a problem until it is too late for the best solution. The suckers in these photos are being removed at the same time I did my annual fruit tree pruning in the winter. 


Suckering on this peach tree was worse than usual this year because the tree owner had his mowing crew clear away the weeds and place mulch around the tree base. In the process the roots were damaged and encouraged the growth of more suckers.

Removing the suckers now is just a matter of cutting them down at soil level and removing the cuttings. If the suckering continues heavily for a few years I will have to carefully dig down to where the root is and cut the sucker stump off there. Sometimes a stump gets so big and woody that I have to remove it to cut down on future work.


Some fruit trees will go many years without having suckers removed. In these cases the suckers get large and compete for sun and other resources with the fruit producing parts of the tree. The competition cuts down on quality and quantity of fruit produced, so I try to avoid it.

Good luck with your winter garden tasks! And remember, spring planting is just around the corner.

Picking Permaculture Plants for Utah

Have you ever wanted to grow a food forest but didn't know how? Join TreeUtah and me at the Day-Riverside Library in Salt Lake City. I will be covering the basics of what Utah-based food forest can provide and what to plant to make it happen.

TreeUtah’s Autumn Permaculture Series: Picking Permaculture Plants for Utah

Saturday, Sep 24  10:00am - 12:30pm Day-Riverside Library 1575 West 1000 North Register at: http://treeutah.org/events/event-registration/

There will be a $10 registration donation for TreeUtah. A larger donation never hurt!

Guerilla Gardening?

Despite my passion for native plants and edible landscapes (read permaculture), I make most of my living as a gardener by mowing lawns on foreclosed homes.

Although it is amazing what will stay alive in Utah's hot, dry summer in an unirrigated landscape, it is more amazing to see what food manages to survive. On a recent Monday I ate wheat, mulberries, and raspberries from empty houses.

Last year grapes, strawberries, walnuts, apples, and peaches were all on the menu in season. Not all of them were in prime condition, but most were very good.

Apricots, not quite ripe.

But that's the funny thing about unused properties, they are every bit as good as the ones the rest of us live on. They just aren't getting the same care.


Of course any care would increase the quantity and quality of the food.... You see where I'm taking this don't you? If every foreclosed or abandoned house had a neighbor or two that were 'helping', that is taking care of watering, pruning, or even planting, how much food could be produced?

Raspberries, I already ate the ripe ones.

Now, before I go any further, I must note that for this to be legal the property owner or their agent must give permission for such wild activities. The permission is hard to get and even if you get it, there is no protection for the plants or those who kept them alive when the house is sold.


Under the best conditions you would still have to share it with me and my fellow workers. Under the worst you could be prosecuted  for trespassing or other criminal activities, if you did not get proper approval.

But for the time being let's say it is taken care of, and good land is being put back to good use. If there is too much food produced, share it with the local homeless shelter. Nearby apartment dwellers could be invited to work plots and make better lives for themselves.


I realize that I sound utopian, but the reality is that anything not being used will deteriorate and crumble. By using it we make the world a better place.


Am I dreaming? Definitely, but since that is the only way to get to a better world, I'll stick with it. Would you like to join me? It will be worth it.

Rootstocks for Apple Trees

Dwarfing can be achieved by pruning rootstocks, 

or by limiting a needed resource. This tree is 
dwarfed by a lack of summer water.

Attaching a favorite fruit tree to an unrelated root has been a standard practice in growing apple trees for centuries. Besides being the easiest way to grow that favorite apple, rootstocks can also affect the way the tree or the fruit develops.

The most noticeable effect of a rootstock is the size of the tree it forms. Placing the same apple variety on different roots can create a tree anywhere from a normal 30 foot tree to a tree seven or eight feet tall.

This tendency to be smaller anywhere in the natural world is called dwarfing. Of course it doesn't matter how much smaller it is, even if it is only two percent smaller, it will be called a dwarf. For this reason, most pomologists and horticulturalists will use a term like 'semi dwarf' for the dwarfs that are closer to full size.

Dwarf fruit trees have become the standard in the orchard business because they are easier to pick, prune, and spray. The homeowner has the added benefit of having a fruit tree that doesn't take up most of his yard. And he may be able to fit in a few varieties instead of just one.

The following is a list of some of the more common rootstocks that you are likely to find:

Apple Seedling  

•    Highly variable, but most often produces a full sized tree. 

•    Low suckering.

•    More tolerant of differing soils and water conditions.

MM 111  

•    Best named rootstock for most conditions. 

•    70% to 90% standard tree height, maybe taller. 

•    Well anchored with a good root. 

•    Tolerant of wet and dry soils.

•    Low suckering. 

•    Resists wooly aphid and collar rot.

•    Susceptible to burr knots.

MM 106

•    65% to 75% of full sized tree.

•    Well anchored.

•    Bears early.

•    No root suckers.

•    Fruit matures late in the season.

•    Trees grow late in the year making them prone to winter damage.

•    Crown and root rot susceptible.

M 27

•    20% to 30% standard hight.

•    Early and heavy fruit bearing.

•    Good for pots and planters.

•    Few suckers.

•    Likes well drained soil, but constant moisture.

•    Smaller than normal fruit.

•    Small root system needs staking when young, maybe longer.

M 26

•    40% to 50% of normal tree size.

•    Few suckers.

•    Collar rot resistant.

•    Cold hardy.

•    Early bearing.

•    Needs staking.

•    Needs regular irrigation.

•    Susceptible to crown rot and fireblight.

•    ELMA 26 is the same rootstock, but virus free. Reliable dealers will have all virus free stock no matter what the name.

M 9

•    20% to 30% standard size.

•    Increases fruit size.

•    Ripening accelerated by one week.

•    Does well in clay soil and wet conditions.

•    Not drought tolerant.

•    Susceptible to fireblight and wooly aphid.

•    Shallow root system.

•    Brittle roots require extra support.

M 7

•    55% to 65% normal size.

•    Early and heavy bearing.

•    Resists fireblight, powdery mildew, and some collar rot.

•    Winter hardy.

•    Adaptable to many soils.

•    Likes rooting deeply.

•    Abundant suckers.

•    Will usually need staking.

Mark

•    25% to 35% normal height.

•    Phytophthora and root rot resistant.

•    Good anchorage.

•    Few suckers.

•    Heavy bearing, thinning is a must.

•    Needs fertile soil and constant moisture.

BUD 9

•    20% to 30% standard size.

•    Similar to M 9.

•    More winter hardy than M 9.

Geneva 30 (G 30)

•    40% to 50% standard height.

•    Similar to M 7.

•    Good anchorage.

•    High production.

•    Weak grafts with some varieties of apples.

•    Needs support.

Look for more of the Geneva series, as well as the Vineland, as the Cornell and Vineland programs becomes more widely known.

Also remember, that good, well informed pruning can bring any tree down even further with a little work.

Have a great time choosing this years apple trees