During the winter months, home orchard owners need to protect their fruit trees from rabbits and voles. But hold off on any pruning until after the worst of the cold, winter weather has passed.
Rabbits and voles injure fruit trees by chewing the bark from the lower trunk and portions of the roots. This damage may kill or severely weaken the trees.
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Winter is a good time to prepare fruiting crops for the season ahead. Many fruit diseases can be partially controlled by being vigilant with cleanup and fungicidal sprays at proper times. Remember that pruning should take place in late February on fruiting trees. Below is a list of fruit crops along with diseases of concern and some things to do to help you have a successful harvest. Continue reading
Like it or not, winter brings the damaging effects of snow and ice to trees and shrubs. Wet snows are bad, but freezing rain is often worse. Ice storms typically start as warm rain falls through rapidly cooling air at ground-level. This results in rain quickly turning to ice on all exposed surfaces. Freezing rain is especially serious on evergreens and deciduous species that have not shed all their foliage.
Ice is heavy. A half inch on a power line can weigh 500 pounds. For trees this can amount to a weight increase of 30 times. Corrective pruning and replacement are the only solutions once breakage has occurred. But, are there options to prevent breakage?
The cold winter season is enough to keep many plants, and most gardeners, in a state of suspended animation patiently waiting for warm breezes and bright sunshine. But, among these droves of winter evaders, there is one with the fortitude to tempt ‘old man winter’ and produce not solely a plump bud or a greenish stem, but a flower with fragrance and style unlike any other blooming shrub. The plant is Witchhazel and it is the hero of a winter garden. Continue reading
You have finally decided to plant a tree in the front yard. Congratulations! The big question now: Which tree?
First, there is no perfect tree. All trees have both good and bad characteristics. Most trees are more or less adaptable to your specific site. Some are more susceptible to disease and insect damage than others. The best advice is to plant a diversity of species. Choose trees for shade, some that bloom and a few just to be ornamental.
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Be sure to keep trees and shrubs mulched and watered through the summer months. Organic mulches are better than gravel or rubber mulches, since the organic types encourage beneficial micro-organisms in the root zone, and they don’t heat up as much. If you’ve had problems with shotgun/artillery fungus, try using pine bark mulch (i.e., nuggets) or cypress mulch, rather than finely-ground hardwood mulches. Mulch should be 2-3” deep (more would cut off oxygen to the roots), applied out as far as possible, since the lawn grass is an enemy to the tree, competing for the same water and nutrients. Never let the mulch touch the trunk of the tree, or it can cause trunk decay and vole damage to the bark. Continue reading
Late fall arrived with snow and lower than normal temperatures. This was followed by warmer than average temperatures in early winter. Late winter brought the coldest temperatures in recent years. These fluctuating temperatures made it difficult for plants to acclimate. Continue reading
Plant lovers are often asked to name their favorite plant. A common response is, “The next one I discover!” While new discoveries keep life exciting, the unknown can also bring threats of danger. A large number of invasive plant species are the result of horticultural introductions. These include bush honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii and L. tatarica); Callery pears (Pyrus calleryana); autumn olive (Elaeagnus umbellata); Japanese knotweed (Fallopia japonica) and numerous others. Their commonality is that with the best of intentions they were all intentionally introduced as ornamentals. The challenge of green industry professionals is to recognize common traits that increase the potential to be invasive and apply these to the selection process. Continue reading
Kentucky Hort News 