March fruit tree care

If you haven’t inspected your fruit trees for a while, now is a good time to do so. My trees are still in their dormant stage, but with the milder temperatures and precipitation, the trees should be going into delayed dormant stage sometime in March and April. During the delayed dormant stage, buds—especially the flower/fruiting buds—begin to swell.

If you haven’t had time yet, prune your apple and pear trees. I’ll start pruning stone fruits (peaches/nectarines, plums, cherries) in mid March when the buds swell and show color. You’ll have time to prune until mid to late April depending on the weather. Hold off on pruning roses until mid April to avoid late frost damage.

When we get a few warm, sunny days in a row do the first dormant oil application to all varieties of your fruit trees (and roses). Dormant oil smothers over-wintering aphid eggs. I’ll have a complete spray schedule in the April newsletter.

December to-do

Fruit trees:

Give orchard area a last good soaking
Turn off, drain watering system
Protect trunks from sunscald
Clean leaves and debris from orchard floor
Mulch

November to-do

Fruit trees:

Give orchard area a last good soaking
Turn off, drain watering system
Protect trunks from sunscald
Clean leaves and debris from orchard floor
Mulch

October to-do

Fruit trees:

Check soil moisture; start cutting back on water
Clean up wind fall fruit at least weekly
Harvest apples - fruit ripe when seeds are dark brown to black

September to-do

Fruit trees:

Check soil moisture; start cutting back on water
Clean up wind fall fruit at least weekly
Harvest apples - fruit ripe when seeds are dark brown to black

August to-do

Fruit trees:

Check soil moisture and adjust watering system as needed
Cover apples and pears with bird netting
Continue to monitor for pests

July to-do

Fruit trees:

Check and adjust watering system as needed
Monitor for pests
Cover ripening cherries and stone fruits with bird netting
Harvest stone fruits as they ripen

June to-do

Fruit trees:

Thin fruit when less than 1/2 inch diameter
Continue/finish pesticide program for coddling moth
Check and adjust watering system

May to-do

Fruit trees:

Turn on watering system remove plastic tree guards
Check and refill coddling moth bait
Monitor for aphids (curled, deformed leaves at tips)
Monitor for powdery mildew (prune out affected shoots)
Mulch

April to-to

Fruit trees (March or April:

Plant bare root trees
Do second dormant oil spray at 1/4 inch green tip (organic?)
Fungicidal application 10 days after dormant oil and before bloom (organic?)
Check soil moisture once each month; water if necessary

March to-do

Fruit trees:

Plant bare root trees
Do second dormant oil spray at 1/4 inch green tip (organic?)
Fungicidal application 10 days after dormant oil and before bloom (organic?)
Check soil moisture once each month; water if necessary

February to-do

Fruit trees (can be done January through February):
Prune trees
Rake mulch away from the tree trunks
Check soil moisture once each month, water if necessary
Do first dormant oil spray if nighttime low will be above freezing (rare)

Raspberries - apply compost for vigorous growth

January to-do list

Fruit trees (can be done January through February):
Prune trees
Rake mulch away from the tree trunks
Check soil moisture once each month, water if necessary
Do first dormant oil spray if nighttime low will be above freezing (rare)

European Starling

(Pic from columbia.edu)
So numerous they are not protected in the US or Canada. Sturnus vulgaris

Voice – a series of discordant, musical, squeaky and rasping notes; often imitates other birds. Call a descending whee-ee.

Nesting – 4-6 pale blue eggs in a mass of twigs, grass, and trash lined with finer plant material and feathers, and placed in a tree or building cavity.

Range – Native to Eurasia and widely introduced around the world.

Hordes of these birds damage vegetable or fruit crops and do considerable damage around orchards and feedlots, consuming and fouling the feed of domestic cattle. They join blackbirds to feed on locusts, ground beetles, and the like. Starlings compete with native hole-nesters for woodpecker holes and natural cavities.

Rock Dove or Pigeon

(Pic from Birds of Our Yard, at President Avenue)

The common pigeon of towns and cities

Voice – soft guttural cooing

Nesting – 2 white eggs in a crude nest lined with sticks and debris, placed on a window ledge, building, bridge, or cliff

Range – Native to Old World. Introduced

Everyone knows Rock Doves, or domestic pigeons, as city birds that subsist on handouts or country birds that nest in pigeon cotes on farms. Few have seen them nesting in their ancestral home – cliff ledges or high among rocks. Over the centuries many strains and color varieties have been developed in captivity through selective breeding. Since pigeons have been accused of carrying human diseases, there have been several attempts to eradicate them from our cities, but they are so prolific that little progress has been made in this endeavor.

House Sparrow

Male and really light colored female

So numerous they are not protected in the US or Canada

Description - Male has black throat, white cheeks, and chestnut nape; gray crown and rump. Female and young are streaked dull brown above, dingy white below, with pale eyebrow.

Voice – Shrill, monotonous, noisy chirping.

Nesting – 5 or 6 white eggs, lightly speckled with brown, in a loose mass of grass, feathers, strips of paper, string, and similar debris placed in a man-made or natural cavity. 2 or 3 broods per season. Sometimes builds a globular nest in a tree.

Introduced and resident throughout temperate North American. Native to Eurasia and North Africa.

Within a short time after their introduction, these sparrows adapt to the local environment. Thus the sparrows of the rainy climate of Vancouver, British Columbia, are plump, dark birds, whereas those inhabiting Death Valley, California, are slim, pale, sand-colored birds. These changes took less that 60 years, and influence our ideas about the speed of evolutionary changes in birds

Mourning dove

(my pic)

Voice – Low mournful coo-ah, coo, coo, coo

Habitat – Open fields, parks, and lawns with many trees and shrubs

Nesting – 2 white eggs in a loosely made nest of sticks and twigs placed in low bushes and tall trees, more rarely on the ground.

This abundant bird has increased with the cutting of forests and burning off of grass. The Mourning Dove is common in rural areas in all parts of the United States, as well as city parks and, in the winter, suburban feeders. In some states it is hunted as a game bird while in others it is protected as a songbird. Its species name, macroura, is Greek for “long-tailed”. The young are fed regurgitated, partially digested food known as pigeon milk.

Sick maple?

Tree is taller on the right side than the center!?

American Kestrel (Sparrow Hawk)

(pic from U of Oregon website)

Voice – shrill killy-killy-killy

Nesting – 4-5 white or pinkish eggs, blotched with brown, placed without nest or lining in a natural or man-made cavity.

Unlike larger falcons, the “Sparrow Hawk” has adapted to humans and nests even in our largest cities, where it preys chiefly on House Sparrows. In the countryside it takes insects, small birds, and rodents, capturing its prey on the ground rather than in midair like other falcons. The female does most of the incubating and is fed by the male. The male calls as he nears the nest with food; the female flies to him, receives the food, and returns to the nest. After the eggs hatch, the male continues to bring most of the food. The young stay with the adults fro a time after fledging, and it is not uncommon to see family parties in the summer.

Humming bird

(my pic)

Don't know which species...too small to see detail.

Lesser Goldfinch

(my pic)

Description – two forms of males: black-backed and green-backed; both have black crown, white markings on black wing and tail, with bright yellow under parts. Immature birds are similar in appearance to females but with greener under parts.

Voice – song a rapid medley of twittering notes. Calls include a plaintive tee-yee? Or cheeo?

Habitat – oak savannas, woodlands, suburban gardens

Nesting – 4-5 pale blue eggs in a twiggy nest in bush or low tree

Lesser goldfinches feed on dandelion seeds and raise their young of soft unripe seeds. They adjust the time and place of their breeding to the presence of this staple food. Their Old World cousins, the Siskins, goldfinches, serins and canaries, have been kept as cage birds for centuries, the males singing incessantly all year except during the molt period.

California Quail

(my pics)
Voice - a loud distinctive ka-kah-ko or Chi-ca-go, the second note highest.

Nesting – 12-16 cream or buff-colored eggs, blotched and dotted with brown, in a shallow depression lined with grass.

Perched on a tree or a fence post, the male California Quail claims his territory by cackling and posturing. The entire family takes to trees for roosting as well as for safety. After the breeding season, these birds become gregarious, gathering in large coveys and often visiting city parks, gardens, and yards. This is the quail with the “topknot” featured in the animated films of Walt Disney.

White-crowned sparrow

(my picture)

Conspicuous and abundant sparrow is one of the most studied birds in the West.

Voice – Short series of clear whistles followed by buzzy notes.

Habitat – Nests in dense brush, especially near open grasslands; winters in open woods and gardens.

Nesting -3-5 pale green eggs, thickly spotted with brown, in a bulky cup of bark strips, grass, and twigs, lined with grass and hair, on or near the ground.

Herb spiral late 2008

House Finch

Male Female

(my pictures)

House Finch
Voice – A chirp call like that of a young House Sparrow. The song is an extensive series of warbling notes ending in a zeee, canary-like but without the musical trills and rolls. Sings from a high tree, antenna, or similar post for prolonged periods. Call a chirp.

Nesting - 3-5 bluish, lightly streaked or spotted eggs, with each pair breeding 2-4 times a summer; tightly woven, compact nest set anywhere from a bush to a building.

Food- House Finches are omnivorous, gleaning insect pests and, in winter, grass and weed seeds. Garden-bred birds join large field flocks during the fall, often feeding in farmers’ fields, and may become agricultural pests.

American Robin

Female Male Juvenile (Google pics)

Voice – Song is a series of rich caroling notes, rising and falling in pitch: cheer-up, cheerily, cheer-up, cheerily

Nesting: 3-5 blue-green eggs in a well-made cup of mud reinforced with grass and twigs, lined with softer grasses, and placed in a tree or on a ledge or windowsill. Robins usually have 2 broods a season.

Food – The mainstay of the American Robin is earthworms. It hunts on lawns, standing stock-still with head cocked to one side as though listening for its prey but actually discovering it by sight. Formerly called simply the “Robin”.

Windbreaks

Windbreak is effective to a distance of 20 times its maximum height; effectiveness decreases the further away you move from the actual windbreak.

There must be some movement of air through a windbreak or the wind eddies on the other side of the barrier. The principle is to create the equivalent of the forest edge, which will lift the wind. The windbreak can be shaped so it tapers at the ends, reducing wind velocity.

Most effective shape is a boomerang or parabola.

Find a way to "see" how the wind and eddies flow in our yard. Something smokey and video camera?

Big compost pile

Compost pile contents 3 weeks after construction - February 20th

January 31, 2009
68 degrees (scary!) but if we can't have snow we'll play in the yard! Two loader buckets of horse manure; 10-12 bags of leaves

Belle does the final inspection




2 1/2 feet high x 10-12 feet long x 5 feet deep